Because of the potential complications of joint appointments at the moment of the tenure review, it is preferable that assistant professors not hold joint appointments. The Deans and the participating departments and programs should negotiate and establish at the outset how a joint position will count toward the department's or program's strategic development plan.
Serendipity or luck of the candidate pool
Description: This type of joint search is one authorized in one unit over the course of which the department discovers that the top candidate desires an appointment in a second unit as well. This appointment could simply be secondary, in which case a simpler MOU is negotiated and the appointment/tenure review occurs in the authorized department (simpler MOU template in Appendix B 15). But sometimes candidates wish a fully joint appointment, with all the rights pertaining to such as defined in the two units' bylaws and with dual financial support for the line. In this case, a more extensive MOU must be negotiated and approved by the Dean and the Provost.
Procedures: The unit that conducts the search should approach the second unit, proposing a joint appointment. If the second unit agrees, then both should conclude the extensive MOU identifying the sources of funding. Perhaps the originally authorized department will cede half the line to the second department (even if only for the appointment of this incumbent), or perhaps the second department will need to devote half a line to the position (maybe in the form of a retirement mortgage), allowing the originally authorized department to conserve half a line for future use.
The MOU should outline the privileges and expectations for the recruited faculty member in each unit. The tenure review will be conducted by faculty from both units, although the tenure-home unit will probably have heavier committee representation. Both units will vote on the tenure dossier. Care should be taken when external APT letters are solicited to inform the evaluators that the candidate is being considered for appointment with tenure in XX and a joint appointment in YY. This way, the letter writers can know who will have access to the confidential evaluations, just in case they had something uncomplimentary to say about someone in YY.
Intentional joint searches resulting in a joint appointment
Description: The type of joint search is one authorized in one unit with the understanding that part of the line will be in another unit. This second unit may be determined when the search is authorized, or it may be determined through a competition of several units for the shared half. Although an MOU is drawn up after the search is launched in type A searches, a preliminary MOU should be drawn up prior to starting the search in these type B searches. It will be finalized once the two participating units have been determined.
Procedures: Success requires broad departmental participation throughout the process. After conversations with appropriate Chairs, the Dean will identify those departments to be involved in a particular search and solicit nominations for search committee members from the relevant Chairs. From these suggestions, the Dean will nominate a committee to the Provost, including its Chair. Or, if the second department is open to a competitive process, the Dean will solicit interest and, after determining which departments will participate, will nominate a committee, including its Chair, to the Provost.
The Dean will endeavor to have all the departments likely to be potential appointment homes represented on the search committee. In cases where this practice would render a committee so large as to be unwieldy, the committee Chair will meet regularly throughout the search with relevant departments not represented on the committee. When extra-departmental units are affected by the search, their participation will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis.
In cases where one department is the tenure home or one unit will lead the search, that unit will provide the search's clerical support. In cases where the tenure home is open to competition, the Dean will provide clerical support in a central location, as well as reading space and a meeting room, or the Dean’s office will approve an alternative support mechanism.
The committee will solicit names of candidates from participating departments, generate names from other sources, and advertise nationally. The committee will review the candidates and arrive at a preliminary short list.
Procedures may follow two paths from this point:
In the first and before proposing interview candidates to the Dean, the committee Chair will send the names and files of potential short-listed candidates to the departments in which they would ultimately hold tenure or joint appointments. The departments will then, in an expeditious manner, deliberate on the candidates and indicate whether they would agree to consider the candidate for tenure/joint appointment. In cases where departments find it unlikely to recommend appointment, that candidate will not be invited to campus to interview.
For the second process and prior to having departments thoroughly vet a candidate, the search committee will send a short-list of recommendations directly to the Dean, and departmental consultation will follow these steps:
Faculty from all departments concerned with the search will be invited to all the candidates’ on-campus presentations. The potential tenure-home and joint departments will be given the opportunity to schedule (and staff) its regular search processes and meetings with candidates.
After the visit and in a timely manner, the relevant departments will follow their normal procedures for deciding on the merits of the candidate and send a report to the search committee Chair.
The search committee will report to the Dean, appending the reports of the individual departments’ recommendations, pointing out the strengths and weakness of all those recommended.
The Dean will select the candidate for the position, and the formal tenure/appointment review will commence, one hopes resulting in a recommendation to the Provost.
The second process for vetting candidates permits the search committee to seek the Dean's approval to bring candidates to campus prior to full departmental vetting. Once this has been done, the search committee has made its report to the Dean, and the Dean has given preliminary approval, the full file will go to the targeted department, which will vote on whether to go forward with a full appointment review or not.
Only after the last step in the process will the candidate be informed that she or he is the top choice of the search and will be offered the job, contingent on all normal appointment review.
interdisciplinary search
Description: Admittedly, this search will not necessarily result in a joint appointment, but the principles are similar. This type of search seeks to identify a scholar in an interdisciplinary area whose appointment home will end up in only one of the departments or schools competing for the position. One assumes that departments will participate in this search in order to pursue their strategic development plans; thus, the search "counts." If this is not to be the case, it must be agreed to in writing by the Dean and Provost prior to bringing candidates to campus.
Procedures: Despite this search’s not resulting in a joint appointment, success requires broad departmental participation throughout the process.
After conversations with appropriate Chairs, the Deans will identify those departments to be involved in a particular search and solicit nominations for search committee members from the relevant Chairs. From these suggestions, the Deans will nominate a committee to the Provost, including its Chair.
The Dean will endeavor to have all the departments likely to be potential appointment homes represented on the search committee. In cases where this practice would render a committee so large as to be unwieldy, the committee Chair will meet regularly throughout the search with relevant departments not represented on the committee. When extra-departmental units may be affected by the search, their participation will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis.
Because the tenure home is open to competition, the Dean will provide clerical support as well as reading space and a meeting room, or an appropriate alternative support mechanism.
The committee will solicit names of candidates from participating departments, generate names from other sources, and advertise nationally. The committee will review the candidates and arrive at a preliminary short list.
Before proposing interview candidates to the Dean, the committee Chair will send the names and files of potential short-listed candidates to the departments in which they would ultimately hold tenure. The departments will then, in an expeditious manner, deliberate on the candidates and indicate whether they would agree to consider the candidate for tenured/tenure-track appointment. In cases where departments find it unlikely to recommend appointment, that candidate will not be invited to campus to interview.
Faculty from all departments concerned with the search will be invited to all the candidates’ on-campus presentations. The potential tenure-home departments will be given the opportunity to schedule (and staff) its regular search processes and meetings with candidates.
After the visit and in a timely manner, the relevant departments will follow their normal procedures for deciding on the merits of the candidate and send a report to the search committee Chair.
The search committee will report to the Dean, appending the reports of the individual departments’ recommendations, pointing out the strengths and weakness of all those recommended.
The Dean will select the candidate for the position, and the formal tenure/appointment review will commence.