Procedures for scheduling on-campus interviews for Search Committees

Departments: Administration and Search Committees

Written: April 4, 2014 (Ruth Connell)

Purpose: This procedure describes the process for scheduling on-campus interviews.

1. The committee chair and Administrative Assistant will review the steps below before the process begins to determine who will take ownership of which tasks.  Most of the tasks will be the Administrative Assistant’s, but step 2 could be handled by either.
2. Once the committee decides on a general time frame (week or weeks the interviews will take place), a doodle poll will be sent to the entire committee in addition to the library dean with all possible days with hour increments.  It is not necessary for all committee members and the dean to be available during all time slots during an interview day, but there must be enough availability for everyone to attend the candidate presentation, an hour time slot when the entire committee is available for a search committee meeting with the candidate, and a 45 minute time slot for the dean to meet with the candidate.  There must also be enough committee availability for two committee members to attend lunch and dinner; and one committee member to conduct a morning tour of the building, and various committee members (one at a time) to transport the candidate between meetings.
3. Once everyone on the committee has filled out the doodle poll, the scheduler will look at all dates that meet the criteria above.  We usually invite 2-3 candidates to campus, but there should be more than 2-3 potential dates.  Once potential dates have been selected, the provost’s office should be contacted to confirm the availability of the provost or assistant provost to meet with the candidates on those days.  Once that office’s availability has been confirmed, the dates should be sent out to all library staff so that everyone can “save the date(s).”
4. Room reservations:  In the past, except for meals and the meeting with the provost’s office, all meetings have been in the Christopher Center.  The presentations are usually in 205 and group meetings are usually in the Board of Director’s room.  Based on a tentative schedule, these rooms should be reserved through the Union as soon as potential dates are known.  
5. The selected candidates need to be approved by the provost’s office before the next step (notifying candidates).
6. For scheduling, a google calendar will be used (for ease, the same calendar used for the phone/Skype interviews can be used).Each candidate will be offered one date during the on-campus email (text below):
   On behalf of Search Committee Chair <chair name>, I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected for an in-person interview for the < position at Valparaiso University. This would involve traveling to Valparaiso for an all-day interview on < Date >.  Please let me know if this date will work with your schedule. I will get back with you concerning specific details once the date is confirmed.” (note, there is example text for most candidate email correspondence).
7. Before hitting send on any email to a candidate, the scheduler must go into the calendar from step #6 and mark the offered day as busy with the event being named “Tentative”: candidate name.  This is necessary to ensure that the same day is not offered to two candidates simultaneously. 
8. All candidates can be emailed at the same time.  When one responds with their confirmation, the scheduler should go to the calendar, change the title of the candidate’s selected day from “Tentative: name” to “Name on-campus interview.” 
9. If a candidate replies that they are not available on an offered date, the scheduler can delete the tentative hold on the calendar, offer the candidate an available back-up date, and mark the new date as a tentative hold until confirmed (repeat this step as necessary until all candidates have confirmed dates).
10. Once an interview is confirmed, email all the library staff and provost’s office with the confirmed date (and provide the provost’s office with the candidates’ CVs, cover letters, and diversity essays if applicable).  The Union should be notified which dates will not be used so those room reservations can be released.  The provost’s office will arrange transportation and hotel reservations for any distance candidates (we usually handle arrangements for local candidates since the provost’s office usually doesn’t pay for those; they will only pay for two); but we need to provide them with the necessary contact information to make this happen.
11. At this point, the specifics of the schedules should be determined (who is leading morning tour, who is picking up from/dropping off to the bus station, who is attending meals, etc.)  This information should be noted on the google scheduling calendar (which should be shared with the committee, if it hasn’t been already).  Restaurant reservations should be made for all meals (some distance candidates have their dinner meal the night before when they first arrive and some have it the evening after their interview; it will depend on their flight times).
12. After the schedule is finalized, a follow-up email should be sent to the candidate that includes the interview schedule and information about their presentation (topic, length, and audience).  The timing of this email should fall at least two weeks before their visit.  Each candidate should receive the same lead time with this notification so that they all have approximately the same amount of time to prepare their presentation.
13. An email should be sent to each invited group to inform them of meetings with the candidate.  In other words, one email goes out to all library faculty/staff with an invitation to the presentation and all staff break, another email goes out just to the librarians inviting them to meeting with the librarians, etc.  Separate emails need to be sent to ensure that people are not confused about which meetings they should attend.
14. Refreshments will need to be ordered for the break with staff (to be held in the staff lounge).  To ensure we have enough food, determine the headcount of invited persons and provide this to Dining Services when placing the order so that they can recommend an appropriate amount of food.