Is AUP Changing its Hiring Process?

While Professor Jeffrey Greene will be difficult to replace, the department of Comparative Literature and English is trying to give students a greater voice in the hiring of his replacement while also, perhaps, setting a new precedent for AUP’s hiring process.

The hiring committee will likely be comprised of faculty members from the Comparative Literature and English department as well as faculty from two other departments. While these faculty members will actually be hiring the new professor, Professor Geoffrey Gilbert, the chair of the department and a member of the hiring committee, is interested in having a student sit in on some meetings to provide input. Another role of this student will be to ensure that the input of other students is heard.

Senior of the Creative Writing program and Executive Producer of Peacock Play Lauren Domagas was offered the position but felt that she would not have the time given her dedication to Peacock Play and the work required to finish her senior project.

According to some sources, similar practices have been employed in the past. However, according to the Executive Assistant to the Provost Sinead Foley, there have been no students on search committees in recent years. She said, “students are invited to meet the short-list candidates who come to campus and attend the research presentations. Feedback is given by students from the class which the visiting candidates will teach.”

Professor Gilbert mentioned in his interview with Peacock Plume that other committees he has been on have had a great deal of student input, but never a student devoted to advising the committee. Professor Gilbert said, “I think it’s going to be way better to have a mix of focus groups and the input from having a student there for the parts of the deliberation they can be there for.”

Peacock Plume reached out to a student who had previously been on a hiring committee for another department for comment on her experience. She was told by the department that she could not give any comment to the Plume as the events pertaining to the hiring committee are confidential, even after the fact.

The Plume asked Professor Gilbert how he and the members of the committee planned to ensure that the needs and interests of the students would actually influence the outcomes in a meaningful way. While there is no structure currently in place for this process, Professor Gilbert hopes that the student working with the search committee will be willing and able to articulate their arguments clearly to the committee, to mobilize other students into being active in the hiring process, to trust the committee to hear their suggestions, and, as Professor Gilbert said, “argue with us and denounce us if you feel that things have gone right badly and you’ve been ignored.”

The department will be looking for a replacement for Ms. Domagas closer to the end of the Fall semester. Interested students can contact Rebecca Herr, the student representative for the department at sga_complit@aup.edu