Dear Deans and Department Chairs,

As you are aware, President Wilson established the Social Justice Action Committee (SJAC) to eliminate implicit and explicit biases and improve diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) throughout the university.  The SJAC was charged with identifying and examining WSU policies and practices that disproportionately disadvantage historically marginalized people and recommending specific actions to advance social justice and equity. A summary report of the SJAC’s recommendations is available on the president’s website.

Faculty hiring and retention was among the areas examined by the SJAC. While some of the recommendations will take longer to implement, please take note of the following new procedures with regard to the OEO Tenure/Tenure-Track Faculty Hiring Plan, which are effective immediately for any future searches that have not already started submission of OEO documents:

1. Lecturers, clinical staff and researchers (including FTA, & FTE .5 and above) are now permitted to serve on search committees in order to create more representation and diversity on these committees.

• Please enter the names of the lecturers, clinical staff and researchers on the “Search Committee” page of the OEO system as you would any other committee member. Information relating to that employee should automatically populate.
• Please remember that you can also invite faculty from outside the university to serve on search committees to support diversity initiatives. Their information must be handwritten into the Committee Members section, and their CV must be uploaded along with the chair and dean’s written approval of the committee.

2. Search committees are currently required to identify their anticipated search activities on the “Recruitment Strategy” page of the OEO system. Automated users must now provide documentation that those search activities were utilized during the search process. Documentation of the activities must be included along with the chair and dean’s written approval on the “Candidate Selection” page of the OEO system.

3. Search committees are now required to utilize an evaluation rubric to ensure that all candidates are subject to the same evaluation criteria, and to ensure that members of search committees apply selection criteria consistently within a search.  Rubric examples are currently available on the provost’s website (Administrator, Chair and Dean Resources - Office of the Provost - Wayne State University), which search committees can modify as needed. The rubric must be submitted along with the other required documentation at step 2 of the OEO process. OEO will not be responsible for reviewing the rubric, but review will be the responsibility of the chairs and deans.

Department Bylaws

Bylaws that limit the composition of search committee members to those selected via vote of the department may effectively preclude or substantially limit the university’s ability to have diverse representation on search committees. Deans are requested to review department bylaws to determine if they limit the composition of search committee members and, if so, encourage changes to the bylaws that will allow the reconstitution or expansion of search committees to achieve diversity. 

Waivers of Job Postings

In the past, departments have occasionally sought the waiver of job postings.  To support the university’s goal of seeking to attract a diverse pool of candidates for faculty searches, any request for waiver of job postings is strongly discouraged.  To the extent any such waiver is submitted to my office, it will be scrutinized. 

While the above changes are effective immediately actual modifications to the OEO system to permanently support some of these requests, as well as others from SJAC committee, will require technical intervention and are forthcoming.  You will receive notification of these updates to the system when they occur in the future.  In the meantime, please feel free to contact the Office of Equal Opportunity at 313-577-2280 or OEO@wayne.edu regarding the OEO system, and contact Boris Baltes at 313-577-2257 or ae8920@wayne.edu with any additional questions regarding these changes.  Thank you for your work and efforts to improve diversity, equity and inclusion at Wayne State.

Laurie M. Lauzon Clabo, PhD, RN, FAAN 
Interim Provost and Sr. Vice President for Academic Affairs