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Student Voices

November 4, 2011, 1:04 pm

By Gene C. Fant Jr.

Every institution where I’ve worked has had some means of involving students in faculty searches, from student representation on the search committee to at least some sort of meeting with students during the on-campus interview. As I rack my memory, I can only think of one or two times where the student-input portion of the process negatively impacted a particular candidate’s status. In general, students seem to be eager to support hires as long as the candidate doesn’t come across as hostile (which is a fairly low standard, I must say).

This got me wondering what our readers believe to be the best use of student voices in the search process? What are the positives or negatives about student representation on the search committee? What should a candidate’s on-campus meeting with students look like? Alternately, do you think students are ill-equipped to have an active role in the process and should be left out of the decision-making process?

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  • http://twitter.com/poopinchute Lulzmobile

    What about less formal channels? As a graduate student, I never made any official recommendations about job candidates, whether or not I went to the big “meet the grad students” meeting. But I would often talk about the candidates with faculty. During the visit, the default small talk around the department would be the quality of their job talk and their other meetings, meals, etc. So although we never cast any votes, grad students who were interested in contributing in this way were definitely heard. If some candidate was particularly offensive to students, but not faculty, I think that would have come out.

    But how often will student responses really differ from faculty? Assuming that the student-faculty relationship is reasonably good to begin with, of course…

  • justanotherucprof

    I’ve never been at an institution with a formal role for undergraduate students in a search process, but grad students are usually involved in various ways.  As Lulzmobile points out, grad student responses to candidates are generally comparable to faculty responses.  But the real point of involving grad students has always seemed to be the benefit to the students themselves.  Many of them will be on the academic job market soon, and the savvy ones understand that they can learn a lot by watching searches close up.

  • dpcowboy

    Usually, the two key background areas asked about, and reviewed, are research and funding (or the ability to attract grants). At least that is all the department heads, academic senates, etc., seem to care about. Unless the applicant comes off like a complete Fred, I just don’t see how undergrad or graduate students would have much effect.  So no, it would be a waste of time for students to interview applicants at all.

  • drangie

    The previous responses all seem to assume the hire is being made at a graduate institution.  At undergraduate schools, where teaching is so critical, I have seen students play an important role in helping faculty determine how the prospective faculty member will interact with undergraduates.  A presentation done by a candidate to a room full of mostly faculty, as opposed to a room full of undergraduates–perhaps even an actual class–are very different things.  I wouldn’t think of making a hire at an undergraduate school without student involvement and input.

  • 11142568

    At our institution, we regularly have finalists do a class for students.   It is usually a very useful step.  The most extraordinary case of student involvement that I experienced was in 1994.  I was then chair of the division of sciences.   To us were in that year joined in a larger division, psychology and speech pathology.   There was already a search process to hire a new person in speech pathology.   It was a rather large committee involved in the hiring including some students.  The speech pathology area was almost moribund at that point, and I wanted some one who would make it take off.  I joined the committee.   It came down to 2 finalists.  Both were well qualified in terms of class room skills and professional accomplishments.  But one seemed to me to have the kind of entrepreneurial elan that we needed, and other did not have those skills.  A majority of the committee liked the one without the management skills.   I was outvoted.  But as it turned out, one of the students on the committee, was a student who had basically taken charge of the college since she came in the door as a Freshmen.  She was also an excellent student and has gone on to a fine career as a speech pathologist.  The President had bonded to her.   She had the ear of the President and she was 100% behind the candidate I wanted. Lo and behold, pace the committee, the candidate I wanted was picked.   I was thrilled.   As I had expected, she revivified the area.  She is still with us and it is one of the best undergraduate speech pathology programs in the country. Peter Baker

  • mkt42

    Yup, when I was on the market, the liberal arts college that I interviewed at (and that whose offer I accepted) had two activities during the visit that the universities did not have:  lunch with the committee of students who were helping with the search, and teaching a “simulated class” with both students and faculty in the audience.  The student representative(s) on the search committee did not have as strong a voice as the faculty — they couldn’t be expected to give more than a superficial evaluation of the candidates’ research — but their reactions to the candidates’ classroom performance was something that the search committee took into account.

  • bnyronsmyrd

    Students will not have read  the confidential letters in the candidate’s file so they will lack important information necessary to form an opinion.  However meeting students may be useful to the candidate and it provides comic relief in some instances for all invloved. 

  • proftowanda

    I have had the experience of being put in a room for an hour and a half to meet students — and none came to meet me.  Such unstructured “meet the students” sessions are unwise of a department, as I thus was on the watch for other signs of a disorganized or disaffected department, and I found them.  I did not pursue the opportunity at that campus. . . .

    If students are to be involved, a department ought to structure their involvement well, or not involve them at all.

  • rchtjn

    I think students recomendations for jobs are best done by their work done in internship or a free lance project.. a site http://www.youth4work.com based out of india has shown great strides and usability for recruiters

  • primfaba

    I think that this depends heavily on the school and the department which is doing the hiring. My (close-knit) academic department hired two positions in my first year of undergrad. Each candidate was asked to give a lecture on a topic within their research interests, which was attended by all department faculty but also open to any interested students. Before each presentation, certain faculty members escorted the candidate to lunch in our dining area, and again, students were invited  (and encouraged) to attend.  Most likely because the department was so close, and because the faculty worked so closely with our students, both events were heavily attended for all 4 candidates.  We were not formally asked our opinion, and the faculty of course had the final say, but they indicated that they were open to our impressions and reactions, and there was a sense that they were also observing how we interacted with the candidates, and they with us.  As has been pointed out, we were missing certain pieces of information in the application file, but given the closeness of our department, and its location within an undergraduate-only liberal arts college, I would imagine that ability to teach and interact with students carried significant weight in the selection process. 

    There is also a side benefit to this, as justanotherucprof mentioned: even as an undergraduate, it was very instructive to see the hiring process up-close and get a taste for what I would be up against should I eventually choose the PhD/professorship route. 

     

  • prillva

    As a doctoral student at a private research university, I lived through several hires.  I attended open lectures, and was always asked for input by individual professors.  In my final year of course work, I was asked to serve as (the first for our program) grad student on a hiring committee.  I helped sort through applications, and had input into the selection of candidates for a campus visit.  I don’t remember being allowed to vote on the hire, but I took part in the discussion.

    As dean of arts and humanities at a private liberal arts institution, I insisted that all candidates teach a class of undergraduates.  I often attended too.  Departments were required to include a scheduled session with individually invited undergrads (and/or grad students, depending on the job description), and collect student responses.  I agree with bnyronsmyrd that sometimes the undergrad reactions and comments provided comic relief, but many were insightful.

  • victorl

    You mean that the million+ a year these jokers get paid isn’t enough to fill up a tank of gas?  What a racket.

  • tee_bee

    I eagerly await my car allowance too. And, unlike the AD at my university, I actually generate a net profit for my school.

  • procrustes

    Our tax dollars at waste.  $7,200 a head for cars, plus extra for select spouses!  Students can be packed into big classes or closed out altogether, adjuncts get slave wages, journals get cancelled, but the coaches need subsidized transportation on top of their already outrageous salaries.

  • tlnorth

    Are their wives doing their recruiting for them?

  • fullprof99

    More OSU corruption. I wonder how representative this program is of other big time college sports.

  • cbres

    $600 a month pays the lease on one heckuva car.

  • FUtah2011

    Geez, can I have a $600 a month car allowance too?

  • Socratease2

    This may end some compliance issues but is not going to be great branding or public relations for the athletic dept. in these financially strapped times. 

  • djhennessey2000

    Boy, talk about taking ‘em out to the woodshed!  I’m going to use this as an example and give my give my staff $600 a month each to halt any corrupt practices they may be up to.  First, I’ve got to find the cash.  Did anybody see $612,000.00 laying around?

  • alan_kors

    Wow… just as they do with teachers and researchers, right?  It’s laughable and seemingly unchangeable.  Sad.

  • fellingham

    Interesting that the coach purchased 2 imported cars while employed by a state agency located in an area very dependent upon the econonmic health of the US car manufacturers. I hope all the UAW members can see past this social error.

  • cwinton

    So free cars didn’t pass the smell test.  And this did?  Wow.

  • tgroleau

    It depends on your definition of “imported”.  The Subaru Outback is made in Indiana.  My Dodge Dakota and Ford Escort were both made in Mexico.  Which is the import?

  • eddean

    What smell test did this pass?

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