When faculty committees choose “none of the above” for their next hire

“When every faculty opening is precious, the stakes can be dysfunctionally high,” writes David Perlmutter for Chronicle Vitae, which is why today’s faculty searches will often fail to find a “suitable” candidate. With the increasing supply of qualified candidates and a decreasing demand for tenure-track professors comes a rise in hiring expectations, the author adds, leading to the present-day situation in which “one new assistant professor is expected to possess multiple attributes that in the past might have been achieved with several hires.” Other common factors behind failed faculty searches include the sudden loss of funding, committees reaching a political deadlock, and being turned down by a top-choice candidate. Chronicle Vitae