In early 2012, Boston College experienced a demand for additional faculty. The challenge was to align multiple departments, search committee members, and the Office of the Provost to achieve greater efficiency throughout the faculty hiring process. Without uniformity, the institution’s multiple, fragmented hiring processes often left individual departments disorganized and isolated, straining under the weight of burdensome paperwork while the Office of the Provost stood disconnected from the departmental committees’ hiring processes. The solution? Equip the Office of the Provost with the Interfolio Faculty Search platform as an efficient system for faculty hiring.
Faculty Buy-in, Administrative Insight
Interfolio provides Boston College with the flexibility of the cloud, allowing all parties to complete every stage of the hiring process —and collaborate in real time—from anywhere with an Internet connection. In addition, the Provost’s office now has visibility into the hiring processes of individual departments—faculty benefit from a streamlined system that maintains quality and integrity, while administrators gain transparency and insight into decision-making at their institution.
“Our office understands what a hard decision it can sometimes be to implement a new technology. We are happy to be a voice of confidence to other colleges and universities that may be cautious to spend strained budgets. Seeing how the Interfolio Faculty Search has greatly benefited our office and faculty has been valuable to other institutions, and we are excited to be able to share our success with them,” says Jessica Pesce, Faculty and Academic Affairs Administrator in the Office of the Provost & Dean of Faculties.
Boston College piloted the Interfolio Faculty Search platform in the fall of 2012, beginning with 10 searches through the Office of the Provost. The following year, Interfolio was introduced to the entire Boston College faculty, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
“Having all of the college’s hiring information in a single location has been an incredible value add for us. Interfolio has made it possible to streamline our efforts to efficiently evaluate new faculty members to meet the needs of our growing institution.”
Patricia DeLeeuw, Associate Professor, Vice Provost for Faculties, Office of the Provost & Dean of Faculties
Since then, Boston College has expanded to Interfolio’s other faculty technology products: Review, Promotion & Tenure and Faculty180, its faculty activity reporting product. Now in its fifth year with Interfolio, Boston College remains a strong advocate for the faculty technology platform and often provides guidance to other colleges and universities considering their own implementations.
“Overall, I’d just like to say thank you very much for the chance to use this great tool. In the old days, the schlepping of files, the worry about whether people would check their mailboxes etc., and (not least) the wear and tear in copying and filing for our admin assistants, were quite cumbersome. Interfolio has really lightened our load and made everything a lot easier.”
Robert Stanton, Associate Professor
About Interfolio
Interfolio launched its academic decision- making platform in 2012 as a response to user feedback about the need for better systems to support shared governance and committee decisions. Today, Interfolio has grown to support the entire lifecycle of faculty activity, decisions, and data, from hiring through tenure. With the addition of a system for faculty activity reporting and accreditation, Interfolio now offers the most comprehensive, user-friendly, and faculty-focused technology in higher education to over 275 clients worldwide. To learn more about what your peers are saying about Interfolio, visit www.interfolio.com or contact team@interfolio.com