Many colleges and universities now require faculty search committees to use rubrics when evaluating faculty job candidates, as proponents believe these "decision-support tools" can reduce the impact of bias in candidate evaluation. That is, rubrics are intended to ensure that candidates are evaluated more fairly, which is then thought to…

As the face of higher education has changed, the need for a more diverse workforce has increased. It is aspirational and essential for students of color to see themselves reflected in the faces of their faculty and staff. Campus diversity enriches the educational experience for all faculty, staff, and students. Unfortunately, the rate of hiring…

Bias among faculty search committees has been considered a significant barrier to diversifying the professoriate. Given the traditional faculty hierarchy in academia, junior faculty search chairs may not have the positional power to challenge authority when confronted with bias or prejudice. Yet, search chairs are expected to ensure equitable…

The lack of diversity within collegiate athletic departments is well documented and continues to be seen currently within the workforce of college athletic departments. There is research on what things might cause the continued lack of diversity however, there has been no research done looking at both sides of the hiring process within college…

The governing boards of Australian public universities, known as Senates or Councils, are bodies with broad legislated powers. The composition of these bodies is crucial to ensuring sound strategic management of universities and maintaining academic standards. The key aspect of Council processes in Western Australian (WA) that this article seeks…

Background: The lack of racial diversity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines is perhaps one of the most challenging issues in the United States higher education system. The issue is not only concerning diverse students, but also diverse faculty members. One important contributing factor is the faculty hiring…

This study examines experiences with aesthetic bias as perceived by individuals with physical disabilities (i.e., vision, hearing, orthopedic/mobility). We used the concept of aesthetic bias to guide our quantitative and qualitative data analysis. A quantitative Needs Assessment Survey (NAS) gathered demographic information, degree of appearance…

Various concerns regarding the vitality and racial/ethnic composition of the academic profession have prompted new study of faculty search committees and hiring paradigms, most notably examining the term "fit" in candidate appraisals. Yet no study utilizes a candidate evaluation framework to investigate whether or not faculty members…

With the rising price of college and anxiety about graduates' job prospects, the employability of graduates is a dominant narrative shaping postsecondary policy and practice around the world. Yet, completion and the acquisition of a credential alone do not guarantee employment, and research on hiring reveals its subjective aspects, particularly…

This report offers analysis of the University of Tennessee's Diversity Action Plans. Every academic college and every Vice-Chancellor Unit on campus issued plans. True to Chancellor Donde Plowman's vision, these colleges and units propose extensive and ideologically-charged reforms. The National Association of Scholars finds in these plans nothing…

Student ratings of instruction (SRI) are commonly used to evaluate courses and teaching in higher education. Much debate about their validity in evaluating teaching exists, which is due to concerns of bias by factors unrelated to teaching quality (Spooren et al., 2013). Our objective was to identify peer-reviewed original research published in…

Research on shared information bias has shown that group members involved in a decision-making task tend to undervalue information that a single member shares with the group, especially when that information conflicts with their prior conclusions. The group activity in this article is intended to heighten awareness of this shared information bias…

Citing a pattern of outside interest groups aggressively seeking to impose their influence on recent collegiate hiring and tenure decisions, five prominent professors have formed the Ad Hoc Committee to Defend the University. They are circulating an online petition that takes explicit aim at "groups portraying themselves as defenders of Israel,"…

This article critically analyses administrative searches through the experiences and perspectives of candidates and search committee chairs at a predominantly white university. A model of filtering is advanced that describes how candidates are included and excluded and how the perspectives and consequences differ for black female, black male,…

Last year, Franci, a very knowledgeable Lakota scholar and writer, arrived to teach at this author's university. The author's friend, Malea, had left, so she was pleased to see another American Indian face in the department. The past year it had become clear that Indians faced many hardships at the university, but most strikingly they continued to…