Outsiders on the Search Committee

Every college and university where I’ve worked has included extra-departmental faculty members on search committees, though the rationale has been somewhat different in each place. It’s also important to note that all four of those institutions have been small and primarily focused on teaching.

Chosen carefully, such external committee members can have a powerful positive effect on the outcome of a search. From a candidate’s perspective, they can show that the institution as a whole is interested in each department’s hiring, and can lay the foundation for future collegial relationships.

From a departmental perspective, it is (or, more precisely, can be) extremely helpful to get a clear, external perspective on the various candidates. It’s almost inevitable that the disciplinary enthusiasms and schisms that operate in a particular department can lead to certain kinds of blindness that can be alleviated by wise words from beyond the department. It’s also sometimes true that departmental faculty members will act better when an outsider is in their midst. If a department is riven by factions, sometimes that moderating force makes a real difference in the conduct of a search.

The challenge is to get the right person or people to perform this role. The same departmental forces that may make a search itself difficult can, and probably will, cause problems in selecting the external search-committee member. A clever department head or committee chair can, perhaps, select a good colleague who will have the right kinds of influence.

An outsider on the committee may be useful in determining how well candidates can articulate their discipline to a well-informed person who is not a part of the field. An external member can also serve as a good reviewer of teaching demonstrations, and can be tasked with observing the way candidates interact with students, staff members, and others not directly connected to the search.

What are your experiences with having faculty members from outside a department serve on its search committee? Has that worked well, or caused difficulties in your process?