Search Advocates
Next workshop dates:
Friday, May 17, 2024, 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
We will be adding five workshop dates in June, July and August to gear up for fall 2024.
To register for one of these dates, please contact Kim Davis at kdavis2@ewu.edu
Search Advocates Program- Feedback Form: HERE
Program Details
The Search Advocates program enhances equity, validity, and diversity in university recruiting and hiring. Preparation includes an eight-hour workshop addressing current research about implicit bias, diversity, the changing legal landscape in hiring, inclusive employment practices, strategies for each stage of the search process, and effective ways to be an advocate on a search committee.
The search advocate plays a vital role in position development, recruitment, screening, interviews, references, evaluation, and integration of the new faculty or staff member into the institution.
Search Advocates are external (outside of your department), non-voting committee members, who advance inclusive excellence and increase faculty diversity by helping the search committee:
- Test thinking
- Identify and promote practices that advance diversity and social justice
- Work to minimize impact of cognitive and structural biases
- Explore assumptions, norms and practices often overlooked
- Play a vital role in position development and all phases of recruitment
The Search Advocates program:
- Provides initial training for volunteers to become Search Advocates and ongoing support
- Maintains a list of trained Search Advocates willing to serve on search committees
- Recommends that Search Advocates serve on only one to two screening committees per year
It is preferable that faculty will serve in the Search Advocate capacity on searches outside of their own departments.
