2023-24 FAS Ladder Search Process
March 1, 2023
To: FAS Department and Program Chairs (effective July 1, 2023)
cc: FAS Steering Committee, Faculty Resource Committee; FAS Dean’s Office Staff; FAS Chairs’ Assistants, Operations Managers, and Lead Administrators
[Summary: This document offers guidance on the FAS ladder search process for 2023-24 academic year.]
Dear Colleagues,
I write on behalf of the FAS Faculty Resource Committee (FRC) with information about the 2023-24 search process. Below you will find details about the search timeline and search request process for the upcoming academic year. The deadline for proposals for searches to take place in 2023-24 is March 31, 2023. For chairs who are new to this process, the FAS Dean’s Office is happy to offer support and guidance. Your first point of contact should be your current divisional dean: Kathryn Lofton (Humanities), Ken Scheve (Social Science), or Larry Gladney (Science).
Background
As the president and provost wrote last February, the size of the FAS and SEAS ladder faculty will increase over the coming years by 15 and 30 respectively. In the FAS, this added headcount will support significant expansion in the area of data-intensive social science, and will permit modest additional flexibility across the FAS more broadly. In addition, the normal opportunities for faculty renewal—through retirements, departures, and the addition of area-specific positions through gift-funded initiatives—remain. In light of these investments, we expect to authorize a healthy number of searches for the 2023-24 academic year, with the aim of somewhat increasing our ladder faculty headcount as the result.
New searches
The new searches most likely to be authorized in 2023-24 are those that receive strong intellectual support from the relevant divisional advisory committee (TAC) and for which a suitable supporting slot can be identified. In the 2023-24 search cycle, as we did in 2022-23, we will be placing strong emphasis on searches at the junior (assistant professor) level. While there may be exceptional circumstances under which a search at the tenured level will be authorized, requests to conduct searches for tenured hires should be preceded by a discussion with your divisional dean and submitted to the FRC with a detailed rationale for the exception, following the request process described below.
Continuing searches
If you have an unresolved search from the 2022-23 academic year (that is, a search that did not result in the selection or appointment of a candidate), you may request that the search be continued, suspended, or discontinued by emailing fas.dean@yale.edu.
If you have a previously approved search from 2021-22 that was suspended during the 2022-23 academic year, you may request that the search be continued by emailing fas.dean@yale.edu.
If you have an unresolved search from the 2022-23 academic year and you wish to modify the search to focus on a different area or rank, you must submit a new search request. We encourage you to speak with your divisional dean about how best to describe such requests.
We realize that this year’s searches and other comings-and-goings may not have resolved until late in the semester and that in some cases you will be making requests contingent on those outcomes. While we plan to have a list of most of the approved 2023-24 searches by mid-June, we will leave some search approvals and slots in reserve to accommodate late requests that are the result of unanticipated events and of late-breaking opportunities throughout the year.
Questions?
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to either your divisional dean, associate dean Jason Zentz, or fas.dean@yale.edu.
2023-24 faculty search request timeline
February, March | Departments should undertake discussions of search priorities early in the semester in anticipation of the March 31 deadline.
March 31, 2023 | Departments’ search proposals should be submitted to the FAS Dean’s Office using the form available at http://fas.yale.edu/fas-search-request-form. (Late requests may also be submitted, but we may not be able to respond to such requests on the timetable that follows.)
April | Area advisory committees will review requests for searches and prepare recommendations for review by the Faculty Resource Committee (FRC).
April, May, and June | The FRC will meet regularly during the months of April and May to discuss and approve search requests for 2023-24. We hope to be able to provide responses to the majority of spring requests by the middle of June.
June, July, August | Late-breaking search requests will be considered by a summer subcommittee of the FRC.
Request process
Search requests should be submitted using the online form available at http://fas.yale.edu/fas-search-request-form. If you are proposing a joint search with another department or program in the FAS, only one unit needs to submit the request. If you are proposing a joint search with a department or program in SEAS, the FAS department should propose the case to the FRC after consultation with the SEAS Dean’s Office. For this year, please work with Kristin Flower who will direct you as needed. Please do not submit such a request unless both units have agreed on the area and level for the proposed search.
Included in a search request should be answers to the following questions:
Basic information
- Area: In what area(s) are you proposing to search? (3–5-word short description of area)
- Rank: Is the request for a junior, junior/mid-career, senior, or open-rank position? Most search approvals for 2023-24 will be at the junior level. If your request is not at the junior level, please provide a detailed explanation for why the request is at a different rank.
Strategic overview
Why is this an important area for your unit to search in? How will it contribute to Yale’s commitment to supporting research and teaching in areas of enduring importance? How does this search fit into your department/program/division’s long-term plans, in terms of research, teaching, and commitment to diversity and excellence and in terms of teaching? Keeping in mind that devoting a ladder slot to an area means making a multi-decade commitment, how important do you expect this area to be in the next decades, as your field evolves?
Specific questions
Please ensure that you specifically address each of the following issues. (Where appropriate, your answer may involve directing the FRC to the relevant section of your strategic overview.)
- Diversity and excellence: Is a search in this area likely to produce a diverse field of excellent candidates? If not, how might the area of search be shifted or broadened to allow consideration of a broad and diverse range of candidates of the highest caliber?
- Teaching and mentoring: What role would you expect the candidate to play in the teaching and mentoring of undergraduates (including majors, non-majors, and students in cross- and interdisciplinary programs), of graduate students, and (where relevant) the mentoring of post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty? How does this fit into your department or program’s long-term teaching plans?
- Space: In what office/laboratory space do you propose to house the candidate? No search will be approved without a specific space plan. Over the next few years, space may be the limiting factor in authorizing certain searches.
- Additional resource needs: What other resource needs will be associated with the hire (laboratory renovations, library investments, special teaching facilities, equipment and setup funds, graduate student support, etc.)?
- Prioritization: If your department or program is requesting more than one new search for 2023-24, please rank these searches clearly in relation to one another. Leaving them unranked defers judgment of your unit’s priorities to the FRC.
Concluding thoughts
We welcome your feedback and suggestions for future improvements to the faculty search authorization process, and we look forward to receiving your departments’ and programs’ requests.
Yours,
Kathryn, on behalf of the Faculty Resource Committee
Kathryn Lofton
Acting Dean of the FAS
FAS Dean of Humanities
Lex Hixon Professor of Religious Studies and of American Studies and Professor of History and of Divinity
Faculty Resource Committee
Kathryn Lofton | Chair, Faculty Resource Committee (Spring 2023); Chair, Humanities Advisory Committee; Acting Dean of the FAS; FAS Dean of Humanities; Lex Hixon Professor of Religious Studies and of American Studies and Professor of History and of Divinity
Lauren Benton | Barton M. Biggs Professor of History and Professor Adjunct of Law
Ronald Breaker | Chair, Biological Science Advisory Committee; Sterling Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology and Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry
Lynn Cooley | Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; C. N. H. Long Professor of Genetics and Professor of Cell Biology and of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
Emily Erikson | Professor of Sociology and of Management
Larry Gladney | Chair, Physical Science & Engineering Advisory Committee; FAS Dean of Science; Phyllis A. Wallace Dean of Dean of Diversity and Faculty Development; Professor of Physics and of Astronomy
Pericles Lewis | Dean of Yale College; Douglas Tracy Smith Professor of Comparative Literature and Professor of English
Fatima Naqvi | Elias W. Leavenworth Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures and Professor of Film and Media Studies
Kenneth Scheve | Chair, Social Science Advisory Committee; FAS Dean of Social Science; Dean Acheson Professor of Political Science and of Global Affairs and Professor in the Institution for Social and Policy Studies
Mary Louise Timmermans | Damon Wells Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences
Fabrizio Zilibotti | Tuntex Professor of Economics
Non-Voting Advisory Staff
John Mangan | Senior Associate Dean and Dean of Faculty Affairs, FAS
Dorottya Noble | Assistant Dean, FAS
Neyza Sanchez | Senior Administrative Assistant, FAS
Pamela Schirmeister | Deputy Dean and Dean of Strategic Initiatives, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; Dean of Undergraduate Education and Senior Associate Dean, Yale College
Anne Shutkin | FAS Chief of Staff and Senior Strategic Advisor for University Affairs
Jason Zentz | Associate Dean, FAS