Civic Engagement and Academic Hiring

The other day I was in a meeting with one of our school deans who is in the midst of a search for a new faculty member in a discipline that offers plenty of opportunities for us to build ties between the campus and the surrounding city.

We were talking about inviting one or more local leaders to meet with our on-campus candidates. However, as we discussed how we would make the arrangements, it became clear that we really don’t have a good idea of how to involve outsiders in an academic search process. How would we collect their opinions? We would have to give them an orientation in how the hiring process works in academe but how much insight should we share about our goals for the search and our hopes for the new colleagues’ links to the city?

Academe talks a lot about civic engagement — it has been a main thrust of discussions at the American Association of Colleges and Universities for the past several years. But as far as I know, all of that talk hasn’t changed the way we hire people in academe.

If we are truly serious about building closer ties to our local towns and cities, we are going to have to think more about how to involve local leaders in the hiring of new faculty members. I’m not talking about all disciplines, only those in which civic involvement important to the field, such as criminology, environmental studies, education, and other such fields. What would you suggest?