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Future Faculty

You Belong Here

The Communication and Media (C&M) Department welcomes you, and we’re excited that you're interested in learning more about our department and how to join our faculty. This webpage is designed to address FAQ for individuals interested in applying for our open positions. If you have additional questions after reviewing this information, please contact our department chair, Dr. Leigh Anne Howard at lahoward@usi.edu.

The search committee will be hiring three tenure-track faculty, one each in Communication Studies, Digital Media, and Advertising. The committee members are Dr. Erin Dennis (Public Relations and Advertising), Dr. Wes Durham (Communication Studies), Dr. Leigh Anne Howard (Communication Studies), John Morris (Radio/Television), Dr. Jessica Rick (Communication Studies), and Jessie Roark (Radio/Television/Journalism).

Teaching 

At USI, we want our faculty to be effective teachers who can engage students. All of us work to develop activities and assignments to advance our students’ knowledge, critical thinking skills, ethics, appreciation of diversity, and ability as communication practitioners. 

The typical teaching load for C&M faculty is 12 credit hours (4 courses) per semester if all courses are at the undergraduate level and 9 credit hours (3 courses) per semester if they teach a course in the Master of Arts in Communication program. In our department we try to minimize the number of course preparations for faculty, particularly those on the tenure-track.  

Our department supports excellence in traditional classroom and non-traditional classroom settings--such as labs, studios, performance spaces--as well as in the delivery of distance learning. We also embrace a range of teaching philosophies, styles, methods and assessment techniques and encourage innovation in teaching. Although most of the faculty teach face to face because many of our current students prefer that delivery format, each program in our department offers classes online (synchronously and asynchronously) and in hybrid formats to serve a range of student needs.  Faculty also have the opportunity, but are not required, to teach summer courses for additional compensation. All C&M faculty advise students for academic and career purposes. Those in the initial stages of the tenure-track, however, will usually have a reduced advising load.  

The University also offers a number of programs to support our teaching effectiveness.  The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning provides seminars on a range of topics from course design to assessment measure to test writing, in addition to its FACT Program, which provides faculty with the opportunity to get formative feedback on their classroom teaching.  The University also has a number of programs to assist faculty with online learning and online course development (https://www.usi.edu/online-learning/faculty-resources). 

 

Research  

Teaching and research are interdependent, so we encourage tenured and tenure-track faculty to be engaged and productive scholars. While the C&M Department values traditional research, we also value the creative and applied aspects of our discipline. We promote and support endeavors that are interdisciplinary in nature and make full use of the broad context of the discipline of communication. We expect faculty to develop and articulate a cohesive and ongoing research agenda, one that continues to evolve as the faculty member and discipline evolve.  

We expect faculty to present their scholarship at local, state, regional, national, and international conferences and to produce peer-reviewed publications and other scholarly and creative works. USI has a number of internal funding sources for scholarship including, but not limited to:  


Service 

The C&M Department promotes effective service activities that advance and enhance the institution, profession, and community. We recognize that service is vital to the operation of the department, the management of our student organizations and student media, and in achieving our collective goals, so faculty are expected to use their expertise and interests to provide service to the department, college, university, and community. However, in the first year or two of the tenure-track, we want faculty to prioritize teaching and scholarship, so we try to minimize their committee work. Later in an individual’s tenure clock, we help them to gradually become more involved with service activities aligning with their interests and abilities. 

USI’s Communication and Media Department is a collegial, interdisciplinary department with a commitment towards teaching excellence and community engagement. Our department is committed to strategies to recruit and practices to retain the presence of underrepresented faculty, administrators, and students. Our commitment applies to all candidates inclusive of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, age, marital status, disability, or status as a protected veteran. 

Our Radio and TV Program is an award-winning program, both in the state of Indiana and nationally. In April 2022, in its first annual rankings of student achievement by students from over 300 schools worldwide, the Broadcast Education Association ranked USI 7th for audio production and 39th for our combined audio and video production. The BEA also recognized the quality of USI’s live sports broadcasts for the Screaming Eagles, by ranking our sportscasting in the top 30.  

The Communication and Media faculty are active both on campus and within their professional associations. Numerous faculty members hold leadership positions in state, regional, national, and international associations as well as serve on editorial boards for journals. They have been acknowledged for their outstanding contributions to teaching, research, and service by the University, professional associations, and community partners. Check out our faculty at https://www.usi.edu/liberal-arts/communications/faculty 

Once Applications Are Received 

Once applications have been posted 30 days, the Search Committee will begin reviewing applications and contact a short list of candidates for a virtual interview. This 30-minute conversation on ZOOM will give you the opportunity to discuss your interests and a chance to learn more about USI and our department. We will continue to check applications until a hire has been made, so please feel free to apply as long as the posting is on the USI Employment Opportunities page. 

After the virtual interviews, we will invite three candidates to campus for a more extensive interview. These few days are busy—not to mention long and maybe a little stressful as interviews often are. Our goal with the itinerary we develop is to make sure you and the department faculty have formal and informal opportunities for interaction so that you can learn about who we are and what we can offer. It’s also an opportunity for you to see our beautiful campus. 

At this time, candidates are requested to have official transcripts sent to USI. We need official transcripts showing your highest earned degree – this means that we need a transcript showing that you earned your master’s degree, if you have not yet completed your PhD. Official electronic transcripts should be sent to the attention of Dean Del Doughty to  jminnette@usi.edu. Julie Minnette is the assistant to the dean, and she will make sure the Dean receives it. If your university cannot send an official transcript electronically, please let me know. 

The Campus Interview 

Our office will handle the travel arrangements. Usually, candidates arrive in Evansville the day before the interview and depart the day after. On that first day someone will pick you up at the airport and, depending on your arrival time, take you to the hotel to relax a bit or to dinner with a few members of the Search Committee. 

The next day, after a continental breakfast at your hotel, you will be picked up by a member of the search committee to begin a series of meetings that will usually start around 9:00 a.m. and then end around 4:30 p.m., when you will be taken back to the hotel before dinner with the Search Committee. 

During the day you will: 

  • Interview with the committee (approx. 45 minutes) 
  • Interview with Dr. Leigh Anne Howard, the department chair of Communication and Media (approx. 45 minutes) 
  • Interview with the dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Dr. Del Doughty (approx. 45 minutes) 
  • Present a 50- to 60-minute teaching demonstration with students. Usually, we will ask you to discuss a specific topic related to your expertise and course content. We will also send you materials students were assigned to read for the class session. Department faculty will also be invited to the teaching demo. 
  • Present a 30-minute talk about your research agenda to the Communication and Media Department faculty with the last 5 or so minutes of the research presentation session for questions.  
  • A brief meeting with USI Human Resources to discuss benefits and other employment matters. 
  • Take a campus tour, meet with other offices of interest. 

Once we have interview dates confirmed, USI will make the arrangements and the search committee will send you an itinerary. If you have travel expenses—food while in transit or mileage if you travel by car, for example—you can provide the receipts and information after the trip, and USI will reimburse you. 

As a part of the interview, you will have an opportunity to talk to a staff member in Human Resources about the benefits USI offers employees. However, USI also offers many opportunities for funding to support course development, faculty research, and creative projects.

About the University of Southern Indiana 

Founded in 1965, USI is known for its accessible professors, beautiful campus, proximity to numerous urban centers, and the friendliness of our students, faculty, staff, and administrators. We offer more than 130 areas of study at the graduate and undergraduate levels in its College of Liberal Arts;  Romain College of Business;  College of Nursing and Health Professions;  Pott College of Science, Engineering, and Education; and School of Graduate Studies. USI is a Carnegie Foundation Community Engaged University and offers continuing education and special programs to more than 15,000 participants annually through Outreach and Engagement. The University offers study-abroad opportunities in more than 60 countries and hosts international students from around the globe. 

In February 2022, USI was featured on The College Tour, a one-of-a-kind show that streams on Amazon Prime and enables students to share their college experience. To see the USI episode, click here: https://www.usi.edu/college-tour/usi-episode. 

Visitors always remark on the beauty of our campus, and everyone in the campus community enjoys the thousands of tulips that bloom each spring, as well as the holiday lighting that goes up each fall. Click here https://www.usi.edu/admissions/schedule-a-visit for a variety of tour options, including a virtual tour where you can see various parts of campus (available here: https://www.usi.edu/tour/). There is another video tour available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOheaiFusG8. 

 

Living in the Tri-State 

Evansville, Indiana’s third-largest city with an estimated metro population of 314,000, is located on the Ohio River where Indiana, Kentucky, and Illinois come together. The commercial, medical, and cultural hub of this tri-state area, Evansville is a three-hour drive to Louisville, Kentucky; St. Louis, Missouri; Nashville, Tennessee; and Indianapolis, Indiana. The tri-state is also home to numerous museums—Evansville Museum of Arts, History, and Science, The Children’s Museum of Evansville, The Evansville African American Museum, among others--the Mesker Park Zoo and Botanic Garden; Angel Mounds Historical Site; John James Audubon State Museum; Tropicana Evansville casino; an emerging sports tourism industry and growing arts, culture and entertainment districts. Major employers can be found in financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, warehousing and distribution, and retail. 

The Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation is the third-largest school district in Indiana, with more than 23,000 PreK-12 students across 40 schools. Evansville is also home to public charter Signature School, the #1 charter school in the country as ranked by U.S. News and World Report in 2022. 

https://eisforeveryone.com/  

https://www.visitevansville.com/  

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g37093-Activities-Evansville_Indiana.html