Article 13 of the Collective Agreement sets out the appointment process that must be followed for faculty appointments.
Collegial processes are an important part of academia and form the basis of much of our Collective Agreement. Your participation in these processes, including appointments, is necessary for their proper functioning. Participation in collegial process meetings is by personal attendance or simultaneous audio and/or video technology – not by email.
After the Dean has given authorization to 13.5.1 recruit to fill a vacancy in the academic staff of a department or college, the unit forms a Search Committee. The Search Committee is chaired by the 13.5.1.2 Department Head, or Dean in non-departmentalized college, and consists of in-scope faculty holding probationary, continuing status, permanent status or tenured appointments. The College Review Committee co-opts faculty from cognate departments to have a minimum of five members on a Search Committee. Quorum is a majority of eligible members and any excluded because of leave or conflicts of interest do not count towards quorum. A Search Committee must never be less than 5 members.
The Search Committee in departmentalized colleges also includes a department head from a cognate department as an observer of the process and as a member of the Appointments Forum. In a non-departmentalized college two members of the Search Committee are designated to function in that role.
The initial meeting of all Search Committees includes a Human Resources recruitment specialist and a USFA observer to assist the Search Committee with respect to Collective Agreement procedures and recruitment strategies.
The Search Committee is responsible for the recruitment process. It conducts advertising for the position. It reviews academic credentials, scholarly work, teaching experience, letters of recommendation and any other relevant information about candidates. The Search Committee also recommends the appropriate appointment rank and the starting salary based on the qualifications and experience of the candidate.
The Search Committee decides on the candidate to appoint and votes by secret ballot on the question: “Shall appointment be recommended?” Mail and email ballots are not to be used in conducting the vote for the appointment of faculty; however, these methods may be used when a member of the Search Committee is participating by simultaneous audio and/or video technology as long as a means to maintain balloting secrecy needs to be used.
In a departmentalized college, a positive vote of the Search Committee means a recommendation for appointment is forwarded, within two days, to the Dean along with the vote results, any minority views and an employment equity report. From there, if the dean supports the Search Committee recommendation, it is forwarded to the Provost and Vice-President Academic for approval. A non-departmentalized college forwards the search committee recommendation directly to the Provost and Vice-President Academic.
It is important that members who vote against the Search Committee majority on a recommendation to appoint provide the reasons for their minority view to the Dean and/or Provost and Vice-President Academic and/or USFA. The Dean and Provost and Vice-President Academic must request and consider minority views. These views can be very important.
No appointment may be made without a positive recommendation of the Search Committee.
If the Dean of a departmentalized college does not support a recommendation of the Search Committee, the Dean must meet with the Search Committee to discuss the recommendation. The Search Committee can choose to reconsider the recommendation or require that it be forwarded to the Provost and Vice President Academic.
The Provost and Vice-President Academic has the last word on appointments and may reject an appointment or refer it back to the Search Committee for reconsideration. However, should that happen, the Provost must meet with the Search Committee to explain.
All faculty positions must be advertised for at least 6 weeks. Advertising may be reduced to 2 weeks for term appointments when the authorization to recruit is given less than 3 months in advance of the planned start date. Advertising may be waived by the Provost and Vice-President Academic only in exceptional circumstances. In those rare instances JCMA must be informed of the nature of the exceptional circumstances that justified the waiver.
The work of the Search Committee may be delegated to a sub-committee, but the Search Committee makes all recommendations for appointment. The composition and terms of reference for the sub-committee are established by the Search Committee each time a sub-committee is used. It is comprised of a majority of members from the Search Committee unless JCMA approves otherwise. The sub-committee may be smaller or larger than the Search Committee and is not limited in its membership to in-scope faculty holding probationary, continuing status, permanent status or tenured appointments.
When the department or college is unknown at time of of a search the Department Heads, or Deans, of possible departments, or colleges, establish the composition and terms of reference for a search subcommittee. It shall include at least two reps from each possible department or college and the sub-committee shall recommend the department, or college, in which the candidate will be appointed.