The search committee is charged with making formal recommendations about candidates or finalists. You can find more information on the models for effective search committees with the Office for Faculty Advancement. Regardless of the search committee model being used, it is best practice to assign administrative support (Admin) to the committee. The Admin should be responsible for the collection and retention of the Substantive Records on behalf of the search committee. Substantive records are documents that provide an official record of the charge to the committee. To avoid duplication or mismanagement, only one central copy of substantive records needs to be kept on behalf of the search committee. If no Admin is appointed, the Search Committee Chair should collect and manage the substantive records. Search Chair or the Admin working on behalf of the committee should request and gather records from the search committee members in order to have one central location for the substantive records. Additionally, it is imperative that committee members are forthright in providing the substantive records to the Search Chair or Admin for retention purposes. Upon providing a copy of materials to the Admin or Search Chair, the version still retained by the committee member is considered a duplicate and is transitory. See the details below about identifying substantive vs transitory records and what actions to take. By agreeing to serve on a search committee, all members are required to manage the records created or received during the search process in-line with the following UW standards.

In the initial Preparation Stage of a faculty search, the search committee will receive its official charge and will work with unit leadership to establish the goals for search; enlist support of the unit and key allies, and create an assessment plan and evaluation rubric(s) for the job posting. The ideal timing is to create these records before designing the Interfolio posting.

Substantive Records: Retain 6 years after end of search then shred/delete

Action Items: Substantive Records

These substantive records created during this preparation stage must be retained until end of the search plus 6 years.

The substantive records created during this Preparation Stage may include, but are not limited to:

  • Search Committee Charge Letter
  • Committee assignments
  • Goals for the search and any relevant data
  • Planning documents for outreach
  • Meeting minutes, agendas, and notes of unit leadership and/or the search committee prior to the job posting
  • Correspondence among unit leadership and the search committee
  • Finalized Assessment Plan
  • Finalized Assessment Rubrics
  • Recruitment plans
  • Finalized Position Description
  • Correspondence regarding the review and approval of the final job posting from local HR units and Academic Human Resources
  • WHO: Committee Admin (Search Chair if no Admin)
  • WHEN: Once the job posting is published on Interfolio
  • DO WHAT: Request and gather all finalized preparation stage records
  • WHERE: Store it in a secure & centralized shared drive or SharePoint space
  • HOW: See link for filing schemes and how to handle paper records
  • THEN WHAT: Retain until end of search, plus 6 years.
  • WHO: All Other Search Committee Members
  • WHEN: Once the job posting is published on Interfolio
  • DO WHAT: Submit any finalized records to the Admin/Search Chair
  • THEN WHAT: Shred/Delete your, now duplicate, version

Transitory Records: End of search then shred/delete

Action Items: Transitory Records

To avoid duplication and erroneously retaining unnecessary materials, search committee members should purge the following records as soon as the hiring process has been completed:

  • Copies of UW compliance policies and relevant federal or state laws
  • Assessment Plan Drafts
  • Assessment Rubric Drafts
  • Position Description Drafts
  • Personal/reference notes made by search committee members
  • Duplicates of official records after being sent to and gathered by the Admin/Search Chair
  • WHO: All Search Committee Members
  • WHEN: Once the search process has been completed
  • DO WHAT: Double check Admin/Search Chair has a copy of the substantive records
  • THEN WHAT: Shred/Delete transitory records