Physics departments that want to increase the diversity of their hiring pool (Physics Today, October 2020, special careers issue) need to provide clear guidance to candidates, since some of the most interesting aspirants may lack mentors who can advise them on preparing applications. Colgate University has a website, www.colgate.edu/P&A/hiring , that offers help in writing statements on teaching, research, and diversity and inclusion for applicants to liberal arts colleges.
For example, we offer specific prompts for the teaching statement: Tell us what you learned from previous teaching experiences. How would you tailor a course to help students achieve their goals? What courses do you feel best prepared to teach? What have you learned about teaching from your experience as a student or from reading the science education literature?
We also specify what information we’re looking for in a research statement. What will your lab look like? How will undergraduates contribute to it? And most importantly, we ask applicants to convince faculty from outside their research area that they’ve identified an exciting area of study where they can make contributions in an undergraduate environment.
We encourage other departments to think carefully about what they seek to learn from applications and to use their websites to share that information. Applicants who receive clear guidance can write more effective applications, which should increase equity in the hiring process.
