Manage Searches Using Sharepoint
Jay Zhu
, X55344
September 2013
Genera Information
We have just started 24 tenure track faculty searches. The list of all the positions can be found at the HR website: These positions have been advertised on the Chronicle of Higher Education, higheredjobs.com, hercjobs.org, and academickeys.com.
If you are not familiar with the search procedure, you can always check the Equity and Diversity website at
Eastern is one of the 322 green campuses in the United States. We are trying to make Eastern even greener by conducting searches electronically. Given the lack of an applicant tracking system and the limited resources we have, we are using a combination of Outlook and Sharepoint to reduce paper usage in the search process.
Sharepoint sites have been created for all the faculty searches. They can be accessed from the Equity and Diversity website at You can create a shortcut on your desktop.
Create Sharepoint Site
After EHR2 and Search Plan are completed, you can request to create a Sharepoint site for the search. We generally grant access to committee members, the department secretary, the appropriate dean, Dr. Rhona Free and Dr. Stacey Close.
Because the Dean and VP have access to this site, you don’t need to attach resumes of applicants when you submit your paperwork.
Use Sharepoint
Once you are in Sharepoint, click “Shared Documents” on the left side, then Click on New, and New Folder. We suggest that you create a separate folder for each candidate.
After the folder is created, click on the folder name. If you already have a file saved on your computer, you can click on “Upload Multiple Documents”. From here, you can either drag and drop files to Sharepoint, or browse for files on your computer and select them.
You can upload your search grid or your sample acknowledgement letter. We may add the signed EHR2 forms and the search plan.
Copy Files from Outlook to Your Sharepoint Site
In most cases, we want to copy files directly from email. To do that, go back to the candidate folder, click on “Open with Windows Explorer” from the “Actions” dropdown menu.
An empty folder will open in Windows Explorer.
You can drag the entire email or just the attachment to the folder in Windows Explorer.
Now if you go back to the candidate folder in Sharepoint, the files are already there.
Once you have finishing copying files for one candidate, go back to “Shared Document” and create a folder for the next candidate.
Access Sharepoint from Off Campus
Another advantage of using Sharepoint is that it can be accessed from off campus. To do that , you have to go through VPN.
First go to VPN, type in your regular user name and password.
Onc you are in VPN, created a bookmark for your search by clicking on the “+” sign on the upper right corner.
Type a bookmark name and copy the Sharepoint link to the URL box, then click on “Add Bookmark”.
Now you see the “Music” bookmark added under “Web Bookmarks”.
Click on the bookmark, type in your username and password, you are in your sharepoint site.
We are all learning about using sharepoint, if you figure out some tricks and you think they can be helpful for other search committees, please share with me, I can add them to this document.
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