next »

[grasshopper]

I really think it depends on the department and the workload expected of the VAP. Someone who's teaching 5/5 with no benefits? No way would I suggest doing it. But a lower course load and full benefits? In a search that won't take 27 meetings and hours spent every evening pouring over CVs? Well, it might be useful. Not because it's a service line on the CV, which, yes, of course, doesn't even come close to comparing to a few well-placed publications. But because you get to see how the hiring process works from the inside.

[seniorscholar]

We sometimes ask a good VAP if s/he is interested in serving on the hiring committee for next year's VAPs -- since most of our comp classes are taught by grad students, VAPs, and adjuncts, the good VAP will be a useful addition to the committee from our perspective and for the potential new hires. We also generally ask the grad student who's currently serving as assistant to the comp director (generally in the final year or two of a comp/rhet degree). The learning experience is welcomed by most of the people who accept; the burden is not terribly large, compared to a TT search committee; and I certainly hope that the comp director always presents the service as an option, not a demand.

But though there are usually two advanced grad students on regular search committees (they have one vote between them and can split the work however they wish), I can't imagine asking a VAP to do that work.

[pocksuppet]

Should a VAP be expected to serve on a hiring committee?  Absolutely not.

Will the experience build your CV in a meaningful way?  Absolutely not.

Might you personally find it a worthwhile use of your time?  Quite possibly, but if so it will be for the insights it provides you for your own future job searches.

[arty_]

It's an absurd request, and you're right to politely decline. That you were even asked, let alone ridiculed for declining, says all too much about your department.  Use that time to publish your way the heck out of there.

[lizzy]

As other posters have asked, why can't the SC be staffed by tenured and tenure track faculty (the stakeholders in the dept)?

Another possibility:
I may be overly cautious, given my own (snakepit of a) department, but is it possible that the department is anticipating personality conflicts and infighting on the SC? Perhaps they are trying to defuse the situation by bringing in the OP. Or, perhaps they'd like to throw a VAP to the departmental wolves in place of one of their TT people?

The OP has no real pull as a VAP, and so risks putting him/herself in a position where if things go pear-shaped, s/he has no cover. The OP may actually lose more goodwill by serving than by not serving. 

[anthroid]

It's a nutty request and you're right to decline.  Where I've been, VAPs have the same teaching load as the regular faculty, though without the service and scholarship requirements.  However, they are VAPs and I always strongly encourage them to be excellent teachers--and, if they don't want a life of temporary positions, I really urge them to publish, publish, publish.  They shoud not be doing service or advising or anything, really, other than teaching in the VAP position and publishing so that they can become TT rather than VAP or worse.