When a company or institution has a shortage of staff, a few things happen. First, their open position is advertised, then applicants are selected, then those applicants are interviewed, and finally those in charge of the hiring process choose who they believe to be the most qualified candidate to fill the position. At Elgin Community College one of the responsibilities of deans is to recognize the need for additional professors. The hiring process for a full-time professor is long and complex. So much time and effort is invested into hiring new professors because finding the best-qualified professor is important. Having the right staff around helps to make sure the college has the ability to fulfill the needs of the student body and ensure that the institution has the proper resources to provide an environment where students can succeed.

The need for additional faculty comes from enrollment data. When a department decides they would like to add a professor, the dean of that department has to submit a request with evidence of the need for this addition to staff. From there, the request has to be approved by several levels of authority. If the request is approved, the dean can move forward in the process and has to formulate a search committee. The head of the search committee is the dean and it also includes at least three other faculty members and a representative of the group MAGIC.

Next comes advertising the open position. The job opening is submitted to ten different sources, where it is advertised nationwide. According to Ruixuan Mao, Dean of Communications and Behavioral Sciences at ECC, the Applicant Tracking System that is utilized to receive applications filters out applicants that don’t meet the minimum requirements, and yet they may still receive 100, to sometimes even 200 applications from qualified candidates. The search committee is tasked with reading through every single application.

Each member will choose who they believe to be the best candidates, and over time the group comes to a consensus,  narrowing the list by conducting phone interviews or asking the applicants more questions. Eventually, the top five candidates are chosen and invited to the campus to answer even more questions, meet with their potential supervisors, and teach a lesson to the search committee. After this, the group is further narrowed to the top two or three candidates until they finally choose one person they feel is the most promising candidate and offer the job to them.

According to Wendy Miller, the dean of Health Professions, Math, Science, and Engineering at ECC, there are some qualities she looks for in candidates, and further explains the importance of such qualities.

” I look for candidates that are not only content experts, but have good communication and people skills,” Miller said. “Teaching is hard work, so I want to have the right people in the classroom who are willing to go that extra mile to connect with their students and help them achieve their goals. I’m interested in faculty who are able to identify the learning styles of their students and adjust their teaching strategies accordingly. Teaching also takes passion, so I look for faculty who are excited about the prospects of being in a classroom or a lab or a clinical setting. Students can sense when faculty love what they are doing, and this makes for an effective learning environment.”

Irina Delgenio, Associate Dean of Liberal, Visual & Performing Arts, adds what she looks for in potential candidates.

“A qualified candidate would be someone who has a minimum of eighteen graduate hours in the discipline they are hired to teach at ECC,” Delgenio said. “Also someone who has understanding of what it takes to be a successful instructor in a community college setting. Someone who ideally has a work experience teaching a diverse student population and knows that ECC welcomes students from all walks of life.”

Mao explains that the students and their education are the number one priority.

“Learning is very important at this age,” Mao said. “If you acquire good learning skills it will benefit you for life. These are the things we always keep in mind.”

Mao ensures that the faculty at ECC is continually improving by reflecting on student evaluations and conducting self-reflections. Professors continue to be employed with the institution because they have proven to be a good fit for the college. He shares some advice to students who may not agree with the quality of their instructors.

“We have a variety of faculty and their strengths are varied. For a student I would encourage they find out the strengths of the faculty and capitalize on them, and adjust your learning style to meet their challenges,” Mao said.

Completing student evaluations is essential and an opportunity to contribute because it gives feedback to administrators and helps them continue refining and maintaining instructional quality at ECC.