Pool Postings

Purpose:

To explain the college-specific policies and procedures for creating and maintaining pool postings to facilitate the hiring of temporary faculty in academic units.

Relevant Definitions:

Pool Posting: a generic posting in Interfolio that collects applications from individuals wanting to teach at UT for a given academic unit; enables units to hire temporary faculty (from the pool of applicants) when needed.

• Each academic unit in COLA creates a pool posting in Interfolio each academic year (AY).

• The posting title should be named: "<Unit Name> – 20YY-YY Professional-Track Faculty Pool"

  • ex. Rhetoric and Writing - 2024-25 Professional-Track Faculty Pool

• This posting serves as the default job posting for temporary non-tenure-track applicants (and hires) for that year.

• Academic units planning to recruit for a specialized, unique, and/or longer-term position would create and post an ad on Interfolio separate from the unit's pool posting.

  • In rare and unusual circumstances, with Dean approval, a posting waiver can be submitted to hire PTF. Please contact COLA HR for assistance if you think a posting waiver might be required.

Interfolio: https://www.interfolio.com. The approved university platform for advertising open faculty searches. 

• For new users: To request access to Interfolio, please send name, EID, department, and reason needing access to cola_hr@austin.utexas.edu.

Academic Unit: Per the glossary for the University Department System, a unit has the type "Academic" when it is the "Official disciplinary department in which faculty teach resident instruction courses to students enrolled at the university. This type includes official academic departments...and academic programs." 

• For this article, an academic unit refers to a COLA department, center, or institute that can serve as the primary or joint home of a faculty appointment.

• Is not a degree program or field of study.

Temporary Faculty: For purposes of this article, "temporary" refers to faculty hired into professional-track faculty (PTF) titles to fulfill an immediate and/or short-term instructional need for the academic unit. 

• In many instances, temporary faculty may be able to transition to longer-term professional-track faculty membership, depending on individual performance, unit's available funding, and curricular needs. The distinction we are making here is that "temporary" faculty are hired for a defined short time period and typically to fulfill a specific need.

Process

IMPORTANT: **For 2024-25 Only: To sync with the new academic calendar, please post 2024-25 pool postings from 9/1/24-8/15/25. We cannot fully sync this year since the 2023-24 postings are set through 8/31/24. **Beginning with AY 2025-26, pool postings will be posted 8/16/25-8/15/26.

1. Log into Interfolio; navigate to “Positions” under the "Faculty Search" menu.

2. In the upper right hand corner, select the “+New Position” button.

3. Under the “Type” drop down menu, select “Faculty.”

4. Assuming your unit currently--or within the past few years--has had a pool posting, under “What kind of position would you like to create” select: “Clone from Existing Position.”

   1. Clone from the most recent posting you have for your unit.

   2. If you do not have a pool posting to clone from, select “A new position.”

      1. If you are creating a new position, please contact COLA HR to discuss the posting and receive instructions on posting language before proceeding.

5. Set your position to run 8/16/YY – 8/15/YY. (**Except in AY24-25, see note above.)

6. Once you have done a quick read-through to check for typos, etc., submit your posting for approval. COLA HR will review posting prior to routing forward to the Provost’s Office for final approval.

7. Upon final approval, department sets status to “accepting publications.” The department will also need to Publish the position. To do that:

   1. Choose “Edit Position” under the “Position Actions” menu (see screenshot).

      Open

      

   2. Then, find the “Position Advertising” section of the position, where you will see a blue “Publish” button to click (see screenshot). This will also generate the URL for the ad.

      Open

      

       

8. Finally, ensure your current year posting is closed, effective end of the business day 8/31. [Starting in AY24-25, this will be “effective end of business on 8/15.”] (See Closing Faculty Job Postings)

Related College Policy

All academic units with faculty appointments within COLA are required to publish pool postings on an annual basis.

Related Topics

Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty Recruitment (COLA wiki)

Closing a Faculty Job Posting (COLA wiki)

PTF PARs (COLA wiki)

COLA Professional-Track Faculty Policies (COLA wiki)

Other Links

Interfolio

Interfolio Faculty Search Guide

EVPP Service Now Portal and Knowledge Base (Provost's Office website for Academic Personnel Services (APS) and Faculty Affairs--Knowledge Base is in upper righthand corner)