Search Advocate Program
Furthering search excellence through equity, validity, and inclusive excellence.
Program Overview
Established in 2008 and sunsetted in 2025, OSU's Search Advocate program enhanced equity, validity, and inclusive excellence in university hiring. Search Advocates were OSU faculty, staff, and students who were trained as content-neutral, external search and selection process advisors. Their preparation included a 16-hour workshop series addressing current research about implicit bias, merit-based hiring and the changing legal landscape in hiring, inclusive employment principles, practical strategies for each stage of the search process, and effective ways to be an advocate on a search committee. As a quality assurance measure, advocates who wish to remain eligible beyond the first year were required to engage in relevant continuing education that was recorded and approved through the Search Advocate program.
Role of a Search Advocate
Each Search Advocate was a content-neutral external process consultant/advisor who advanced inclusive excellence by asking questions to help committee members test their thinking, identifying and promoting practices that minimize barriers and advance diversity and social justice, and helping committees mitigate the impacts of cognitive and structural biases. As external committee members, advocates were able to explore assumptions, norms, and practices that an internal member might not question. The search advocate played a vital role in position development, recruitment, screening, interviews, references, evaluation, and integration of the new faculty or staff member into the institution. In partnership with the search chair, search committee members, search administrator, and hiring official, the search advocate affirmed OSU's commitment to inclusive excellence.