How To Documents

When the need arises in the department to hire a faculty/lecturer/clinical/visiting or Librarian, a search request and approval is required. The following steps will guide you through the entire process.

Search Request

  1. All search committee members are required to complete an annual Successful Faculty Search Training on Blackboard and pass the test. Instructions to self-enroll for the most current search committee training are here.
  2. Faculty Search Job Ad: Create a faculty search job ad in preparation for completing a Faculty Search Request. The ad must be attached to the Faculty Search Request in DocuSign. The job ad template can be found here for your reference.  
  3. Complete a Faculty Outreach Hiring Form located in the Forms Repository.   This form will need to be completed and attached to the Faculty Search Request form you will be submitting to the Provost’s Budget Office.
  4. Begin the search approval process by completing the DocuSign Search Request Forms. Please scroll down to “Faculty Search Request DocuSign Forms” and select the appropriate form based on your rank (Chair or Administrative Assistant). Complete this form and please be prepared to attach the Job Announcement from #2 above and Faculty Outreach Hiring Form from #3 above. Please be advised that if you are hiring for multiple positions under one search, the Provost's Budget Office needs to have an individual search request form for each SAP number. Please include a note on the request form that there are multiple positions for the search and indicate "1 of 2" with the search title. This will help us determine which search requests are multiple.

Search Ad and Taleo

  1. The ad will not be posted on any website prior to the search request being approved. As of June 22, 2023 ALL ADS (Tenured/Tenure-Track, Lecturer, Visiting, Clinical faculty and Librarian) MUST be posted in Taleo and must be approved and marked “Posted” in Taleo prior to PBO posting the ad to the various websites for your department. The ad that is approved by PBO must be the ad that is placed in Taleo. Please wait until you receive the approved ad email from PBO to post to Taleo.
  2. The national and Taleo requisition MUST remain active for a minimum of 30 days. If you fill the position prior to 30 days of posting the ad, you must keep the Taleo requisition active for a minimum of 30 days. On the 31st day, you can close the Taleo requisition if someone was hired.
  3. Please click here for the Faculty Hiring Taleo User Guide. For additional questions and/or Taleo training, please contact Millie McMillan via email or 410.704.6021.
  4. Lecturer, Visiting and Clinical ads will not be posted in the Chronicle. ALL ads; however, are posted to the following websites; towson.edu, https://shopcareers.insidehighered.com/ and https://www.hercjobs.org/.
  5. PBO will reimburse your department for a maximum of $500 (included in $3500 funds provided by PBO) per search for advertising expenses for Tenured/Tenure-track and Librarian positions. To request reimbursement, submit a journal entry to the Stratus Financials team. Please refer to the "Journals" section of the Stratus training page for assistance or you can contact the Stratus Financials Team at as of 7/11/2022. Please note that you will use 1012-16810-604014 as the budget code for the journal entry.
  6. https://www.towson.edu/financialsystems/documents/stratus-financials-general-ledger-spreadsheetjournals.pdf

Interview Pool

An Interview Pool Approval Form is NOT required for Assistant/Associate/Full Professor, Librarian, Clinical and Lecturer searches as these are completed in Taleo.

Candidate Interview/Visit to Campus

Faculty Search Expenses: The Provost's Budget Office will provide up to $3,500 (includes $500 for additional advertising) for each faculty search for a tenured/tenure-track or permanent librarian faculty position only. A "failed search" constitutes a search for a faculty position, so funding for a new search following a failed search within the same fiscal year will not be provided by the Provost's Budget Office without approval from the provost.

Fund may be used for overnight lodging, meals, transportation, and advertisements of these positions only.

  1. Overnight Lodging – The Provost's Budget Office will pay for a maximum of two nights for a faculty candidate visiting campus for an interview related to a faculty search. Towson University is currently contracted with the Sheraton Baltimore North to house overnight guests with direct bill privileges. A FACULTY SEARCH-CANDIDATE OVERNIGHT LODGING form is required if the candidate is staying overnight. Please click here for the form and instructions on how to contact the Sheraton directly and make a direct bill reservation. Be sure to include the confirmation number you receive from the hotel on the form prior to forwarding it to PBO. An account number IS required to book a direct bill reservation at the Sheraton. The account number is #16810. Please also make the candidate aware that they will be required to supply a credit card to the hotel for incidental charges upon their arrival. Once the Faculty Search-Candidate Overnight Lodging form is completed, please email this form to . The Provost's Budget Office will send out a confirmation email to the candidate with important information regarding their upcoming reservation, transportation to and from the airport and reimbursement information.  At this time the only hotel that we are contracted with for direct bill is the Sheraton. If the Sheraton is sold out, the candidate will need to make their own reservation with one of our local hotels. We recommend contacting  Home2Suites by Hilton Towson (667.275.7200), Embassy Suites by Hilton Baltimore Hunt Valley (410.584.1400) or the Courtyard by Marriott Baltimore Hunt Valley (410.584.7070). Please be advised that if using either one of these hotels, the candidate will need to pay for the hotel stay in its entirety and be reimbursed by the University along with their other expenses on the Candidate Reimbursement form submitted to them by the department. Further instructions are on the overnight lodging form. 
  2. Meal Ticket Request – Meal tickets are available through the PBO for on campus dining. You are allowed 3 meal tickets, per candidate, per search. To request meal tickets, please complete the FACULTY SEARCH – REQUEST FOR MEAL TICKETS form found here and submit via email to Wendy Rohrbaugh, . Wendy will contact you via email when your tickets are ready to be picked up.  If additional meal tickets are needed (faculty/staff,/department guests, etc), you can complete Aramark's meal ticket request form. For questions regarding Aramark's meal ticket request form, please contact Kelsey Wallace at wallace-kelsey1@aramark.com. Please be advised that additional meal tickets will be charged to your department’s budget code.                    
  3. Candidate Reimbursement Form – Once the candidate has returned home from their visit to TU, the department will send the candidate a Candidate Reimbursement form via DocuSign. “Initiator” is the person completing the form. “Candidate” is the person who interviewed for the position and the “Dept Chair/Search Chair” is the person who will be signing for the department (not for the funding, just signing off that the candidate came to campus for the interview). Click “Begin Signing” and complete ALL blocks highlighted in Red. Click “Finish”. This automatically moves the form to the Candidate. The candidate will complete the form, including a W-9 which is attached to the Reimbursement Form, attach all receipts, and include a map showing miles to/from, if requesting mileage reimbursement. Please note that upgrades for travel and rental cars are not allowable reimbursement expenses. Receipts for all meals are required (itemized and credit card receipt are required). Candidates completing a W9 that do not have a US address should complete the W9 by inputting "MD" for the state and "00000" for the zip code. They should enter their entire address in the 'street address' field. Also, if the candidate does not have a social security number, the candidate should input "000-00-0000". The "state", "zip code" and "social security number" fields are required fields and must be completed. Once the candidate has signed the reimbursement form, the form will then be routed to chair/search chair for approval and to PBO/AP for processing. It takes approximately 3-4 weeks for the candidate to receive payment.
  4. The candidate will receive detailed instructions in their confirmation email regarding the reimbursement process.

Faculty Reimbursement Instructions

Meal and Additional Qualifying Reimbursement Requests (parking, tolls, etc.) – WHEN DINING WITH A CANDIDATE AT AN APPROVED HOTEL (Sheraton Towson / Hunt Valley Courtyard Marriott), FACULTY MUST PAY FOR THEIR OWN MEALS AND PARKING. NO EXCEPTIONS. FACULTY EXPENSES CANNOT BE CHARGED TO THE CANDIDATE'S HOTEL ROOM. If the faculty is dining with the candidate at the hotel, the faculty should pay for the entire meal (including the candidate), obtain the credit card and itemized receipt from the hotel and be reimbursed through TU's Stratus system. Parking can be included as well. Please see instructions on how faculty can be reimbursed for any faculty meal with a candidate below.

Employee (non-travel) reimbursements are moving into the expense module in Stratus effective July 11, 2022. You will use account 1012-16810-604014. Please be sure to attach all necessary receipts. Please also include the search number and names of the attendees for all meals and enter the candidate’s name under “Comments".

Total charges exceeding the eligible per diem reimbursement amounts (below) should be charged to the responsible department's non-personnel/operating budget and NOT to 1012-16810-604014. Amounts exceeding the per diem reimbursement amounts will be denied and reimbursement requests will need to be resubmitted.

Per Diem Faculty Reimbursement Rates – 3 people max (candidate, 2 faculty members, no exceptions)

  • Breakfast - $15 per person ($45 maximum, over per diem amount can be charged to department funds)
  • Lunch - $20 per person ($60 maximum, over per diem amount can be charged to department funds)                                   
  • Dinner - $35 per person ($105 maximum, over per diem amount can be charged to department funds)

Faculty Hire Procedures

Once a section has been made and the verbal offer is accepted, follow the next steps for the hiring process.

  1. Follow-up with candidates who did not meet requirements / interview expectations.
  2. Complete the DocuSign “Faculty Appointment Request” form located on the Provost’s Budget Office website under Forms. This form will initiate the process for PBO to generate a faculty contract. PBO will also forward early provisioning and moving reimbursement information to the faculty for their information.
  3. When the signed contract is returned to the Provost’s Budget Office (PBO), PBO will forward a copy to the Dean, Executive Administrative Assistant to the Dean, Chair, Administrative Assistant to the Chair and Human Resources for their records.
  4. Moving Expense Reimbursement Process - Newly appointed faculty (tenured/tenure-track faculty ONLY) can submit a moving reimbursement request one week prior to their official start date. Unfortunately, we are unable to process requests any earlier than one week prior to the official start date. They should send an email to and include their TU ID number, department name and college, a map using bingmaps website showing distance from current residence to new residence (addresses MUST be included) and if the department has offered additional compensation for moving expenses, a copy of the letter indicating this offer. Please note this stipend is taxable and must be submitted within one (1) year of original start date.

Moving Expense Reimbursement Scale

Less than 100 miles = $1,000

100-999 miles = $2,000

1,000-1,999 miles = $4,000

2,000 or greater miles = $6,000

Failed Faculty Search

In the event that your department experiences a failed faculty search, we ask that you please emai PBO at , Iona Ringgold at and LaVern Chapman at to let us know that the search is failed. Please include the search number within your email. You will need to close the search in Taleo. For assistance with Taleo, please contact Millie McMillan Natasha Zhalkovsky () and Cynthia Caravello ().