EQRoy/Shutterstock
The faculty job market has more than its fair share of anxieties. While candidates pore over every detail of their resume and position themselves to secure an increasingly rare full-time role, many provosts and deans at small liberal arts colleges and regional-serving universities also worry about landing their preferred faculty candidates.
While in the aggregate, these types of institutions still serve the majority of the nation’s students, some faculty candidates might see them as a lesser opportunity, ascribing greater cache to the ivies and state public flagships. Your small liberal arts college or regional institution has a great deal to offer — we encourage you to make this abundantly clear by making an unapologetic case for why anyone should want to teach at your institution.
Embrace Your Teaching Focus
The case starts with embracing your identity as a teaching-focused institution. Faculty want to make a difference in the lives of their students, and you know that for the students you serve, excellent teaching is transformative. Stoke candidates’ enthusiasm for joining your community during the interview process by sending clear signals about your teaching-focused identity, including the pedagogical support you provide faculty.
In the first interview round, provide candidates with a sample syllabus from a popular general education course. This tangible example not only helps them prepare to discuss their teaching interests but models the high expectations you hold. During the campus interview, include a brief visit to a dynamic instructor’s course, so candidates can see your teaching culture in action. Include a visit to your center for teaching and learning to showcase the support and community available for new faculty. Be sure to discuss any mentoring opportunities as well.
Connect Candidates with Students
During interviews, give candidates substantive contact with students. Invite a few majors to have lunch with the candidate, and provide starter questions to foster an engaging discussion about campus life and student interests. Ask students to attend the candidate’s job talk — be clear with the candidate that students will be part of the audience. Also, be clear whether you want the candidate to pitch their research at the level of an undergraduate, a disciplinary expert, or a more general audience.
For institutions with a regional reputation, the transformative impact of good teaching is a community asset and a source of great personal pride. Many regional serving institutions draw the majority of their students from a 75-mile radius and graduate them back into the same area. Over the course of their careers, faculty experience deep satisfaction from watching undergraduates become young professionals, then advance in their careers and lives (welcoming them back, in time, to serve on alumni panels or to meet their children). It can be helpful to provide evidence of this benefit during a candidate’s campus visit. Hearing these stories directly from long-serving faculty can be powerful.
Consider Candidates’ Professional and Personal Needs
As much as the job needs to be a good professional fit for the candidate, the community needs to fit the candidate, their scholarly interests, and their families. Consider providing candidates with a list of active community-university partnerships — schools, non-profits, local employers, government offices, and study abroad programs — where the prospective hire might advance their research or design innovative experiential learning courses. Demonstrate to the prospective hire the full array of opportunities available to them at your college.
Faculty retention begins at the recruitment stage — distinguish your institution by identifying and addressing needs beyond professional responsibilities. Provide candidates the chance to meet with a faculty resource officer, an individual with no responsibilities in hiring decisions who serves as a confidential resource to answer candidates’ questions and serve as a point of contact about campus culture and area resources. There are a wide range of questions that factor into a candidate’s decision about where to work and live — from how accessible the nearest airport is, distance to the nearest mosque or West Indian grocery store, to whether their child can continue to attend a weekend Chinese language school or participate on a swim team. Creating space to surface questions about local school, employment, worship, food, and services demonstrates care for the candidate as a whole person.
The inclusion of a faculty resource officer shows candidates what their lives might look like in your area and begins the process of building relationships that can strengthen community ties. As Millennial and Gen Z employees place a high premium on work-life balance, help future faculty leaders see that your college is aligned with and attentive to their holistic priorities.
Being Sincere Won’t Go Unnoticed
Job seekers are likely to take note when senior leaders take on the unofficial designation of “cheerleader-in-chief.” When deans and provosts speak sincerely — not with inflated or false bravado — about the accomplishments of their faculty, the positive characteristics of campus culture, and a true love for students, prospective hires will recognize a leader capable of investing the same degree of care and pride in them. Expect job seekers to inquire about things like start-up funding and other material support, but don’t discount the intangible benefits of supportive, people-first leadership. A well-designed on-campus itinerary culminating in a conversation with you will show — rather than tell — a candidate you are invested in creating the conditions for their success.
Together, these strategies signal to candidates that your institution is a place where they can engage in meaningful work with visible impact and find a long-term home.
