ABSTRACT
A distinction must be made between the two kinds of recruitment in general use—"open," or competitive, hiring and "closed," or preferential, hiring. In theory, academic recruitment is mostly open. In practice, it is mostly closed. In the theoretical recruiting situation, the department seeking a replacement attempts to procure the services of an ideal academic man. Discrimination on racial or religious grounds is a luxury in the hiring process which seems to be practiced only when there is a surplus of candidates of quality. This chapter examines the specific procedures of hiring in the American university, they turn out to be almost unbelievably elaborate. When academic hiring procedures are viewed in perspective, their most striking feature is the time and effort which most departments devote to appointments, including the appointments of junior men, who tend to be transient and unimportant to the department.
