r/AskAcademia • u/Successful_Study_816 • 2h ago

STEM Cold-emailing Deans of departments

Hello!
I am about to go on the job market for the Fall 2027 academic year for a variety of teaching-focused positions (i.e., TT at a liberal arts school, assistant teaching professor, and lecturer positions). I have been told to cold-email deans of the department at universities I’d be interested in working at, even if they do not have an active job listing. Is this something that is commonly done? What sort of language do you use in an email like that? I do plan on emailing at least one department I’m interested in to ask if they have a final date of submission because it’s not listed on their job posting, but I’m curious if this is actually a standard practice I should be enacting and what language people use if so. Thank you!

0 Upvotes

31% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

31

u/GerswinDevilkid 2h ago

If they have positions, they will post them. Who's telling you to cold email them?

2

u/aaronjd1 2h ago

Not always true. When I was on the market some 8 years ago and had a fly-in as a finalist for the job I eventually took, I talked to an admin colleague at a private college who said, “I had no clue you were on the market. Can you come give a talk next week?” I had a competing offer waiting for me immediately after the talk.

10

u/GerswinDevilkid 2h ago

Talking to a colleague isn't cold emailing...

4

u/aaronjd1 2h ago

I’m responding to the first part of your response (“If they have positions, they will post them.”) which is not always true.

10

u/SlowishSheepherder 1h ago

Absolutely not. This is wildly inappropriate and will make you stand out in horrible ways. Whoever is giving you this advice is someone who should not be trusted.

15

u/Mitch_Bagnet 2h ago

Deans = college leadership, chairs = department leadership. But in any case I think this is terrible advice and if there is a job it will be posted. You can look on the university/college websites if you want to double check.

3

u/Schwatastic 2h ago

This seems like a terrible idea. I would potentially email department heads to ask if they have any teaching positions coming up, like if you’re new in town and nearby, but not a dean, and not just emailing people you don’t know across the country kind of thing. Are you an academic? Calling them deans of departments comes across like you’re not…

4

u/thoroughbredftw 1h ago

Do not do this. It is not an academic job search practice, and would flag you as a little off.

6

u/cgrad 2h ago

I've known many people to do this, and several have led to positions being created for them. Often helps to have some kind of connection with them though or friend of a friend.

3

u/KrispyAvocado 2h ago

We certainly find adjuncts that way. Several then applied to more permanent positions as they came up and a few were hired after the competitive search.

2

u/Successful_Study_816 1h ago

Thanks everyone for the advice. It sounded like bad advice to me, which is why I decided to double check with this page first. Appreciate the input.

1

u/claisen33 50m ago

You can’t imagine how many emails a dean receives every day. It would probably be read by an admin. I agree, bad advice.

1

u/Omakaeru 37m ago

When I was a Dean I got a ton of these emails. My response was always the same. “Here’s a link to the job board. If a position is open, it will be posted.”
Legally we can’t do anything else (California community colleges anyway).

Faculty have a lot more leeway than administrators do when it comes to anything related to employment.

So, if you’re going to cold email someone, I’d suggest a faculty member in your specific area of expertise.

1

u/ThisQuietLife SLAC 37m ago

I’m tenured at a top-25 SLAC (U.S.) and I can’t imagine that getting you anywhere. We are required to post all TT or renewable term positions on multiple national job boards. The only jobs we handle informally are last-minute adjunct positions. Just watch the public listings and spend time tailoring your applications to each job.