You are the dean of a small, private college and hiring a business professor.

You have 5 final applicants. They submitted resumes and the HR department has conducted phone screens. All meet the basic qualifications: PhD, 5-10 years of teaching experience, and research/publication credits.

One of the finalists is a person of color. One is a women. The majority of your tenured faculty are white males. The college has a goal of hiring more diverse faculty, so you are pleased that there is some diversity on the slate. However, you are committed to hiring the most qualified person without regard to race or gender. At the same time, you know that unconscious bias can be a factor, even among the more enlightened faculty, so you have that firmly in mind.

Your job now is to select the best of 5 finalists for the job.

You are the hiring manager. There are also three other people involved in the hiring decision: 2 tenured professors and the chair of the department.

What selection methods would you use and why? Be specific.

Assuming that an interview is one of the methods, craft 2 interview questions. For each, indicate what the answer will tell you about the person’s qualification or fit for the position.

Reaponses should be short, concise – at least one page, 12 font, double spaced

For example, I think that a panel interview would be a good method to use when trying to hire a professor. This could be combined with a work sample. A candidate would give a sample lesson and a panel would judge their performance and then be able to compare notes about why the instruction was good or bad.

Since a professor has a certain amount of power and authority, I think that reference checks and background checks are important.