The underrepresentation of women and minority faculty in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines continues to be a major concern to university leaders, policy makers, and scientists. While a number of complex factors across the entire academic pipeline play significant roles in this problem, important contributing…

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…

This article challenges current recruitment and hiring practices in educational advancement organizations, while proposing a paradigm shift in addressing the talent shortage of fundraising professionals. A case is presented that competence and fit is more important than experience for successful and productive fundraising outcomes. The paper…

Recession reduces job opportunities in the professoriate, particularly in areas where minorities are clustered. It's a tough time to want to be a professor or try to climb the faculty ranks, particularly for minority faculty, as Dr. Christopher Tudico, a Mexican-American, and others are finding. The recession and its go-slow recovery have cut the…

An airport interview is an initial interview for a senior administrative position conducted at an airport hotel not too far from the campus in question. Meeting at an airport enables a search committee to interview a large number of candidates in a short period of time with a degree of confidentiality. At the conclusion of the airport interviews,…

Retaining quality staff members is a hot topic in the public school arena. Although teachers are often the focus of concern, hiring and retaining quality assistant principals must be addressed as well. Interviewing and hiring the right assistant principal--and then ensuring that he or she remains on in a campus for several years--can do a great…

Businesses continue to use the job interview as a final determinant of the applicant's good fit for the company and its culture. Today, many companies are hiring less and/or are taking longer to find just the right person with the right skills for the right job. If an applicant is asked to come for an interview, the general feeling is that the…

Today's trustees have the central role of choosing university presidents, and often provide valued advice on management of the institutional fisc. But according to the now accepted gospel of "shared governance," when it comes to the heart of academic practice, curriculum, and scholarship, theirs, despite theoretic power, is mainly a task of…

Michael Garrison has earned his bachelor's and law degrees at West Virginia University, the state's flagship institution, where he was president of the student government. He rose rapidly to high-powered political posts, including chief of staff to a previous governor. Garrison then became a lobbyist with the longest client list in West Virginia,…

For at least four decades, the University of California has been the international gold standard in public higher education. The system's 10 campuses are magnets for top-notch faculty members and students. With an annual budget of $18-billion, the university includes five medical centers and three national laboratories. And one of every 10 members…

A key concern of educational leaders in faith-based schools is their ability to hire faculty members who support institutional missions. Insofar as the American legal system protects the rights of leaders in faith-based schools to hire those who share in school goals, this article is divided into three substantive sections. The first section…

Dialogue regarding the professional identity of professional counseling continues to increase and momentum continues to build around efforts to promote broader recognition of the counseling profession. This article outlines a template for action by which the profession may continue to move forward in its quest to be fully recognized as a viable…

Although the concern for fostering opportunities for women and people of color in college athletics expanded under the leadership of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) president Myles Brand, significant challenges in hiring decisions remain. Brand said, "Though there has been some modest recent progress, there is an intolerable lack…

During the author's first decade in school administration, coupled with his work with the National Association of Elementary School Principals' National Principal Mentoring Certification Program, he has collected a few nuggets worth sharing to rookie principals. In this article, he discusses what he calls his 7UP (Seven Unyielding Principles): (1)…

In the author's work as a diversity professional, both as one school's long-term diversity director and now as a consultant and workshop leader for many schools, she has found that building a diverse faculty has been, and continues to be, a profound challenge for most schools, even after decades of effort. This article presents a case study on…