FAS Ladder Faculty Search Request Form

Guidelines for search rationale

Your search request should contain the following information:

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 academic unit’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.)?
• If your academic unit is requesting more than one new search for the coming year please rank these searches clearly in relation to one another. Leaving them unranked defers judgment of a unit’s priorities to the FRC.