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I am sorry to announce that the AIA has terminated its participation in the Joint AIA–APA Placement Service. This unfortunate decision dissolves a partnership that has lasted for more than three decades. We at APA discouraged this step because we believe it will put an additional burden on many candidates and institutions both at the joint annual meeting and throughout the hiring process. In moving ahead, we are determined to continue to offer an excellent Placement Service to our registrants, even as we work on upgrading what has been offered in the past.

In 2011 the APA independently commissioned the creation of an online system to handle Placement Service registration, the immediate posting of new position listings on a private web site, and the scheduling of interviews at the annual meeting. During the current academic year, Information Architect Sam Huskey and his colleague Alex Ward made several improvements to this System, including programming that issued an e-mail notification to registered candidates on the day following the posting of a new position. Sam and Alex are now at work on further improvements for 2013-14, particularly some steps to make the registration process easier for both candidates and institutions.

AIA Officers stated that one of the goals for their separate system is to make candidates aware of jobs, particularly those outside of academia, whose hiring cycle is not connected to interviews at the annual meeting. We do not feel that it was necessary to create a separate system to achieve this goal, which, in any case, we share: Our current ability to issue notices about new position listings overnight makes the System a good vehicle throughout the calendar year for the transmission of information about new jobs.

While the Placement Committee will no longer be a joint committee with AIA, APA will ensure that the Committee’s membership includes archaeologists and will make every effort to attract job listings to the Service that reflect the full range of opportunities for students of classical studies today, from employers seeking scholars of language, literature, and material culture (and combinations of those areas) for academic positions as well as suitable candidates for nonacademic employment. As many of you know, nonacademic employment was the subject of the Joint Placement Committee’s panel at the recent Seattle meeting, and we will soon be posting audio files of the presentations at that session on the APA web site.

Last month the Committee issued its usual questionnaire to candidates registered for the Service in 2012-2013. In addition, it is about to send a new survey instrument to institutions that purchased comprehensive service (i.e., conducted interviews at the annual meeting as well as posting a job) in both the current and previous academic year. Our goal in both cases is obtain further information as to how we might improve the Placement Service. I welcome comments on the Service from members at any time, particularly from those who may not receive either of the surveys described above. Do let us hear your views.

John F. Miller
Vice President for Professional Matters
jfm4j@virginia.edu