Reports on Faculty Searches and Outside Offers

In recent years the provost's office has collected detailed information from the deans on faculty searches conducted in their
school/college and outside offers recieved by the faculty in the school/college. This information has been used to describe the
challenges the University faces in recruiting and retaining faculty to a range of audiences including the Board of Regents and legislators.

Visitors to this page may also find information on exit interviews of faculty of interest.

For access to password protected files, contact Jocelyn Milner.

2007-08 Request to Deans for Information on Faculty Searches and Outside Offers, January 2008:

2006-07 Summary Report on Faculty Searches and Outside Offers (revised January 2008):

2006-07 Request to Deans for Information on Faculty Searches and Outside Offers (February 2007):

2005-06 Summary Report on Faculty Searches and Outside Offers:

The 2005-06 report is based on information collected in the summer of 2006. The 2005-06 Request for Information follows.

2005-06 Request to Deans for Information on Faculty Searches and Retention Efforts Associated With Outside Offers:

Date: December 28, 2005
From: Virginia Sapiro, Interim Provost
To: Academic School and Colleges Deans and Directors
Subject: Request for Information on Faculty Retention/Outside Offers and New Faculty Searches

In recent years we engaged in an annual collection of detailed information on new faculty searches and on outside offers in order to allow us to analyze faculty recruitment and retention efforts and their results across the campus, especially in light of recent budget difficulties. I am asking for your help once again to be sure we have full information for the 2005-06 academic year. To assist with the collection and to get consistent information across schools and colleges, please use the attached spreadsheets to capture the relevant information as each offer or retention occurs.

Please identify an individual in your college who will be responsible for entering the relevant recruiting and retention information on the spreadsheets and returning them by the dates specified below to Jocelyn Milner (jlmilner@wisc.edu). If that is someone other than you, please let Jocelyn know and forward this message to the person who will be responsible for providing the data. Please note that the easiest and most accurate way to keep these data is to fill out the form at the time a recruitment offer or retention counter-offer is made.

New Faculty Searches: This spreadsheet is designed to record information on faculty recruitment including successful and unsuccessful offers made to potential faculty members. Information on all offers of employment to prospective faculty should be included in this file. We have added to last year’s file a request for start date and contact information on new faculty hires so that we can share this information with the Secretary of the Faculty’s office as they plan orientation programs for new faculty hires.

File name: faculty_searches_F06.xls. Return by date: July 15, 2006

Faculty Retention/Outside Offers: This spreadsheet is designed to record information on faculty retention. We are collecting information on "pre-emptive" and "responsive" retention offers as well as cases where no retention offer is made. (Use the pull-down menu in the appropriate column to make the selection. See definitions below.) For schools/colleges with cases that were pending last August, a college-specific spreadsheet is provided that contains those pending cases so you can provide an update.

File name: outside_offers_F06.xls. Return by date: August 15, 2006

"Responsive" retention offers are made to faculty who have received an actual outside offer, either orally or in writing, or are about to receive such an outside offer. Also include faculty members who you wanted to retain but to whom you didn't actually make a counter-offer because the faculty member indicated they didn't want a counter-offer or because the outside offer was so attractive that it clearly could not be matched.

"Pre-emptive" retention offers are made to faculty who you know are "looking around," and so you do something explicitly to keep the faculty member here (e.g., increased salary, more space) even though they may not have received an actual offer or even have gone for an interview. The distinction between responsive and pre-emptive offers may be difficult to draw in some cases; please use your best judgment.

"No counter-offer" refers to cases in which the individual has an outside offer but you didn't make a serious counter-offer: individuals you didn't really want to retain or who were leaving for a clear career change (e.g., to take an administrative position elsewhere).

Let me know if you have questions about this request for information. Alternatively, contact Jocelyn Milner (jlmilner@wisc.edu, 263-5658) or Eden Inoway-Ronnie (etinoway@wisc.edu, 265-5975) with questions.

Thank you in advance for your assistance in gathering this important information. I’m sure we will all find the results instructive.

Copies: Eden Inoway-Ronnie, Jocelyn Milner, Margaret Harrigan, Lindsey Stoddard-Cameron

2004-05 Results for Information Collected in Summer 2005:

For access to password protected files, contact Jocelyn Milner.

  • Summary Points (pdf file)
  • Tabulations - New Faculty Hires (pdf file)
  • Tabulations - Outside Offers (pdf file)
  • Summary points and tabulations combined in one document (pdf file)
  • Supplemental Results - factors associated with successful hires and retentions (as of Feb 2006).