KalahariLog

Different universities do things differently and different departments do things differently too. After eight years as an undergraduate and graduate student, and six years as a faculty member in US universities I still don’t know what the roles of some of our administrators are; for example, I never knew what the provost does. I am even less familiar with the way the administration is supposed to work at the University of Botswana, which is more of a British-style institution. The names of the administrative offices are unfamiliar to me: there are Vice-Chancellors for this and that (say, Academic Affairs or Finance) and one Chancellor of the University, who is in fact the President of the country!

After two months here, I still don’t know what all these people do and I probably will never find out. What I am more familiar with is the workings of individual departments. For example, I have a pretty good idea about how we recruit faculty members in Arizona, or how we accept the PhD students in our program. One of the most striking differences I have seen has to do with recruiting of faculty members.

In Arizona we typically have a recruiting committee of 3-4 faculty members who looks at all applications in detail for about 1-2 months. A good number of these applications are passed on the faculty members outside the committee and then a recommendation is made for the best 3-5 candidates. The lucky applicants are then invited over to give a talk, speak with most faculty members and with the graduate students. These visits last anywhere from 2-5 days, and often include a weekend, when we show them around town, take them hiking, or have them check out the local housing situation. By the time the visits are over, all faculty members have seen the applicants’ documents, letters of recommendation, and even read some of their research papers.

At the Computer Science department at the University of Botswana the process is different. A few weeks back, a meeting was called to select 2-3 new faculty members. Now this would be a cause for week-long celebrations in Arizona but here it seemed more of a chore. At the time of the meeting, about 80 folders were passed around, containing the application documents for the candidates. Nobody from the faculty had seen those prior to the meeting. Four hours later, the decisions were made: no on-site visits, no phone-interviews, no further deliberation. A good number of the folders were quickly discarded for not containing “certificates” or copies thereof. Apparently, the job-solicitations specify that documentation proving that one has indeed received the degrees claimed on their CVs is necessary (it’s a good thing I didn’t have to apply for my job here as I am not even sure I still have mine). A good number of the remaining folders were also discarded because the certificates earned were vague on details (what exactly is a MSA in ICS from ITT in the UAE?). The few folders that passed these tests typically included lots of certificates, detailed transcripts of all courses taken, and even marriage certificates, and citizenship papers.

The decisions made by the faculty were then sent to Human Resources, where most of the recommended applicants are likely to be denied due to rules stipulating that citizens of Botswana must be given preference in hiring decisions. From what I understand, all non-citizen employees are here on temporary contracts, including Associate and Full professors. On the other hand, once citizens are appointed, it is nearly impossible to fire them. Of course, this last bit of information comes from disgruntled non-citizens who work at the University, and I don’t have enough first-hand knowledge to confirm it. However, I did participate in the hiring process (each person present at the meeting got about 6-8 folders that they were supposed to read and summarize and then the surviving folders were passed on to Human Resources).