Economic woes cannot stop the university’s need for high-quality faculty members, although some faculty and staff positions will remain vacant.

“Right now we’re filling only mission-critical vacancies,” President Bill Perry said.

The faculty vacancies include 22 teaching positions across campus, but this does not mean exactly 22 professors will be hired to fill those vacancies.

Blair Lord, provost and vice president for academic affairs said, “We typically fill only about 70 percent of those for which searches are authorized.”

Searches have started for some positions.

“There are a few more being searched because we may hire two candidates from the same pool,” Lord said. “On the other hand, searches for faculty positions can be unsuccessful for a variety of reasons.”

Filling empty positions is a constant goal, and the number of open positions this semester is nothing new.

“The number of open positions has remained fairly constant for many years,” Lord said. “As faculty retire or take other positions we typically have 20 to 25 tenure/tenure-track faculty openings annually. This year is a very ordinary year in this regard.”

Eastern’s mission to provide high quality educational experiences for students with close student-teacher relationships makes filling positions an important task.

“It is our ability to deliver the coursework we are committed to offer for our students which drives the determination,” Lord said. “Because it is imperative that we deliver the curriculum to our students, I am permitted to determine which faculty positions are essential and proceed to have searches commence.”

Should circumstances change before an offer would be made in the search process, Lord has the ability to terminate a search.

“I have not had to resort to this in the past, but it remains possible if circumstances were to force it,” he said. “The short answer, however, is that all of the positions for which I have authorized searches are essential.”

The faculty searches have been ongoing throughout the fall semester. When looking at candidates, Perry has certain criteria he looks at.

“You look for evidence of strong scholarly achievement; look for teaching ability; you look for individuals that are going to be student-centered,” Perry said. “If you’re hiring someone at the senior level, you’re going to be looking at their track record at other institutions where they’ve served. You’ll be looking at their teaching, research and service.”

The vacant positions can be found at www.eiu.edu/employment.php.

Sarah Ruholl can be reached at 581-7942 or seruholl2@eiu.edu.