Recruiting season

January 26, 2023

Universities follow multiple calendars simultaneously. In addition to the solar, fiscal, and academic calendars, the rhythms of several recruiting calendars order our daily activities.

Within the undergraduate student recruitment year, for example, May 1 still represents a high holiday — despite the diminished reverence accorded it in recent years.

This week marked the unofficial apogee of another calendar: that of the faculty recruitment year. As usual, about half of our departments are busy hiring one or more full-time faculty.

My own most important duties include recruiting amazing faculty and supporting them to flourish, so my January days revolve around meeting candidates.

It's my favorite time of the academic year. I love learning a bit about each candidate's intellectual journey. Even more, I love answering their questions and telling them what I've learned about the Xavier community over the past two decades.

I tell them about our mission as a Jesuit, Catholic, comprehensive university in Cincinnati. Mostly I simply tell them about you — the people of Xavier.

This year's recruitment calendar is keeping me busier than ever. (About that e-mail I owe you . . . .) Plus we've been hiring key college staff members and new student workers too.

I can't wait for you to meet all of them, including the two new Sociology faculty who joined our community this month as well as those I met this week whom we'll welcome next fall — when our academic calendar begins anew. 

David Mengel