When a Search Fails

Everyone knows that occasionally — or often — searches for new faculty members will fail. And they do so for a lot of reasons: weak candidate pool, poisonous internal politics, inability to close the deal with the chosen candidate, poorly defined job descriptions that lead to lack of consensus on the committee, and more.

Once a search has failed, the question is what to do next. Sometimes, the best option is simply to wait until next year and try again. But what if you need the courses covered, and there’s no one else to teach them? That problem can be particularly acute for last-minute searches, where you need to hire someone to staff courses that students need in order to graduate.

One of the hardest and most arduous things about being a department head, dean, or vice president for academic affairs is the contingency that comes with searches. When a search ends positively, the institution’s business can carry on smoothly. But when it doesn’t, the problems that follow can be severe. I’d be interested in hearing about your experiences with failed searches, what caused them, and what you did in the aftermath.