Recruiting a Diverse Faculty: CV Review Scenario

Question Title

Review the following Recruitment scenario and select the correct answer(s) based on the insight gained from the Increasing Women in Neuroscience course. This question was adapted from the Committee on Strategies and Tactics for Recruiting to Improve Diversity and Excellence (STRIDE) scenarios from the ADVANCE Program at the University of Michigan.

At the first meeting of the search committee, you notice that two of the members of the committee have given good evaluations only to candidates from Ivy League institutions who have articles published in Cell, Nature, Science, and other “highly ranked” journals. Because the sum of scores from the committee members was used to select the short list of candidates for interview, the process of evaluation has excluded qualified women and diverse candidates from the shortlist. What can you do?

Check any or all of the following that are appropriate or correct:

Prior to reviewing applications, the committee should discuss the criteria to be used in judging candidates.

Give their candidates low scores to get even.

Nothing – if they are not publishing in those journals they are not very good and probably won’t get funded anyway.

Remind the committee that candidates are to be rated based on the sum of the objective criteria that were agreed upon previously, not just one criterion.