The advertisements for the position are developed from the position description and should reflect the diversity and inclusion considerations you have already planned within the context of the search committee. You may develop several versions of the ad – a brief one for expensive print publications, a longer one for less expensive and/or web publications and an even longer one for email distribution. Consider specific language so as to be maximally inclusive (see above Position Description section). At a minimum, all ads must include:

  • Conditions of employment - rank, tenure-status, 9/12 month appointment type,
  • Instructional responsibilities, if any (in case an H1-B visa is sought)
  • Minimum threshold requirements
  • Application deadline and link for more information
  • OSU’s Equal Opportunity tagline. Although a brief tagline option is available for paid advertising, longer taglines may be more effective in recruiting a diverse applicant pool. 

The search committee develops the advertising plan for the search, in collaboration with the hiring official. Considering the aforementioned venues for disseminating the ad (e.g. within Before the Search), an effective faculty advertising plan should include:

Broadcast advertising:

  • Disciplinary organizations and listservs, including affinity group caucuses
  • The EOA Recruitment Resource Guide listserv
  • Print publications, including those targeted to members of underrepresented groups
  • Online job sites targeting the discipline, higher education and or diversity

Network recruiting:

  • Upstream recruiting database – if faculty have already engaged in “upstream recruiting” committee members should contact prospective candidates individually by phone to invite them to apply.
  • Referrals from colleagues – Committee members reach out individually to colleagues at other institutions (particularly those with a more diverse graduate student enrollment) to request names and contact information for promising potential candidates.
  • Open- access resources – explore publicly-available, discipline-specific resources such as conference proceedings, academic journals, department websites, lists of postdocs and fellowships, lists of grant recipients, etc. to identify potential prospects. Once prospects are identified, committee members contact them individually (by phone) to invite them to apply.

The search committee chair may request demographic data on the applicant pool from UHR or EOA. 

  • Demographic data received while the posting is actively open may reflect that the outreach to underrepresented groups appears to working
  • The demographic data while the posting is active could also reflect that the desired or expected demographic distribution is not represented in the applicant pool and a shift in outreach methods/locations may be needed to achieve the expected diversity