Questions for Students to Ask on a Search Committee
For the student representative on a search committee, or any student with the microphone at a candidate's open forum, when the school is hiring a principal, dean, president, professor or coach. The questions follow the order such a conversation usually takes: why this school, how students would reach the candidate and be heard, teaching and advising, student life, how they have handled disagreement with students, and what they would change first.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Why here
Why do you want this job here, and not the same job at another school?
Why ask it
The answer worth having names something particular to the place: a program, the size, the town, a problem they want to work on. If it would fit any campus, ask what they noticed on the visit that they did not expect.
What do you already know about the students here, and where did you learn it?
Why ask it
The second half matters more than the first. Reading the website is the minimum, while someone who talked to a current student or sat in the dining hall before the interview has shown you how they would find things out once hired. Be wary of a confident portrait built from enrollment figures alone.
In five years, what do you want this school, department or team to be known for?
Why ask it
Vision answers are the most rehearsed of the day, so judge this one by who is in it. A good one has students doing something in the picture, not only rankings, buildings or a win-loss record. Follow with what a student who starts next year would get out of it before they leave.
How much of your week now is spent with students, and doing what?
Why ask it
Ask for hours and activities, since nearly every candidate will say students are the best part of the job. Teaching a section, advising a club or eating in the cafeteria counts as contact; a handshake at graduation does not. For a president or dean the honest number may be small, and a candid small number is worth more than a vague large one.
What would students at your current school say about you if we asked them?
Why ask it
The believable version has a criticism in it: 'some would say I am hard to get a meeting with' rings truer than unbroken praise. Whether the committee may contact students there depends on the rules of this search, so check with the chair before you suggest it.
What is the most useful thing a student has taught you about doing your job?
Why ask it
People who listen to students answer this quickly, with a particular student and something they did differently afterwards. The worrying version drifts into a story about how the candidate helped the student.
What did you want from the adults running your school when you were a student?
Why ask it
A gentle one for early in an open forum, when the room is still stiff. The memory is usually specific and a little unflattering to someone, which is what makes it useful. Follow with 'do your students get that from you?' and give them time to answer.
Access
How would a student who holds no office or title get time with you?
Why ask it
'My door is always open' is the stock reply and tells you nothing. Ask what it looked like in their last job: posted hours, a standing lunch, an inbox they answer themselves. Then ask roughly how many students took them up on it in a month.
Tell us about a time students changed your mind about a decision.
Why ask it
You want three things: the decision, the students' argument and what was done differently. If the example is small, such as a menu or a paint color, ask for one where reversing course cost them something.
Which decisions would you bring to students before they are final, and which would you simply announce?
Why ask it
The honest answer draws the line out loud, with an example on each side of it. Be skeptical of a promise to consult students on everything: nobody does, and the first unannounced change will feel like a broken promise.
Where would students see you in an ordinary week?
Why ask it
A professor or coach is seen by default; a principal, dean or president has to choose it. The convincing replies are habits they already keep, such as the bus line in the morning or one meal a week in the dining hall. Treat anything that depends on the calendar allowing it as a no.
Which students would you make a point of meeting in your first month, beyond student government?
Why ask it
The elected students are the easy answer, which is why the question sets them aside. Someone who has thought about who misses the usual meetings will name them without help: commuters, transfers, part-time students, bench players, the ones who work nights. If you get 'student leaders' again in other words, ask who those leaders do not speak for.
When students disagree with each other, how do you work out what most of them want?
Why ask it
The loudest group is not always the largest. Look for a method for reaching the quiet side: a survey, visits to classes, asking the students who work at the front desk. An answer that amounts to waiting for it to pass should worry you.
What have you done with student feedback you did not like?
Why ask it
Course evaluations, a climate survey, end-of-season comments from players: the form depends on the job. The telling detail is whether they went back to the students who gave it and said what they heard. Explaining a bad result away as a low response rate or a few unhappy people is a warning.
After this search ends, where should students have a seat when decisions are made?
Why ask it
Find out from the chair beforehand which seats students hold here now, since that is set by each institution's own rules. Then you can tell whether the candidate is offering more, less or the same. Anyone who has sat on a budget, curriculum or conduct body with student members should be able to say what one of those students changed.
Teaching
If we sat in on your class, your practice or a meeting you run, what would we see?
Why ask it
It is the teaching-philosophy question with the philosophy taken out. Notice who is doing the talking in the scene they describe, and whether the students in it are working something out or only receiving it. If the visit includes a sample class or practice, set what you saw beside what you were told.
What should a student be able to do after your class, or after their years here, that they could not do before?
Why ask it
Scale it to the role: one course for a professor, a season for a coach, the whole program for a dean or principal. The best replies are things you could watch someone do, such as argue a case in writing or run an experiment alone. If you get a slogan like 'lifelong learner', ask how they would tell.
How would a student who is falling behind find out, and how early?
Why ask it
Good answers have a mechanism in them: graded work in the first weeks, a note from the instructor, a check by an adviser. For a coach, it is when a player learns where they stand on the roster. 'Students need to take responsibility' is an answer about blame, and the question was about timing.
What does good advising look like to you, and how many students can one adviser do it for?
Why ask it
The number makes it concrete. Knowing the caseloads at their current school means they have looked at the problem; never having counted suggests they have not. With a professor candidate, ask how many advisees they have had at once and how often they met.
What do you do for the students who will never come to office hours?
Why ask it
The students who most need help are often the least likely to ask for it. Look for someone who goes to them: a required early meeting, a message after a missed class, tutoring held where students already are. Pointing at resources that exist leaves the whole burden with the student.
How do you handle a student who needs something different from the rest of the class?
Why ask it
This covers a disability accommodation, a student working full time, an athlete who travels and someone far ahead of the group. What matters is whether they describe adjusting as part of the job or as a favor. The formal rules vary by place, so ask how it worked at their current school and do not expect them to recite a policy.
How do you decide what a fair workload is, and have you ever cut one back?
Why ask it
For a coach it is practice hours and days off, for a professor reading and deadlines, for a principal homework and the testing calendar. Someone who has trimmed something after students said it was too much can tell you what went and why. This is also where a belief that rigor means volume comes out.
Tell us about a class, practice or program of yours that fell flat. What did you change?
Why ask it
Everyone who teaches has one, so no example at all is its own answer. The fix they describe should involve their own planning. If the whole fault lay with unprepared or unmotivated students, expect to hear the same said about you.
If a course or a teacher is not working, how should students raise it?
Why ask it
Students often learn the complaint route only when they need it, and someone who has run one can walk you through it step by step. Ask how they protect a student who complains about the person grading them. Each school has its own process, so learn what exists here and compare.
How have you helped students get to what comes next: a job, a college place, a graduate program?
Why ask it
Good answers are small and personal: a letter written, an introduction made, an internship found for someone who had no contacts. For a dean or president, ask what they know about where graduates end up and how they found out. A coach should be able to talk about players whose playing days ended with the last season.
What would you want to teach, coach or start here that students cannot get now?
Why ask it
A specific answer means they read the course list or the schedule before they came. Then ask what it would take, because a new course or program generally needs someone's approval and someone's budget, and who that is differs by school. An idea they have already started somewhere else counts for more than one invented for the interview.
Student life
What do you think is the hardest part of being a student here right now?
Why ask it
It tests whether they listened during the visit. If they did, you will hear something a student told them: the cost of housing, the commute, a schedule that collides with work. A general reply about stress or phones means they did not ask, or the answer did not stick.
In a job like this one, what have you done for students who were struggling with their mental health?
Why ask it
Do not expect a clinical answer, and be cautious of one from someone who is not a clinician. The useful replies are practical: a shorter wait to see a counselor, staff taught what to notice, a policy changed because it piled on pressure. If they promise more counselors, ask where the money would come from.
Which students have the hardest time feeling they belong at a school like ours, and what have you done about it before?
Why ask it
The word 'before' keeps this from turning into a values statement. Look for a group named, an action taken and something a student would have noticed afterwards. If the whole account is task forces and statements, ask for that last part directly.
Apart from tuition or fees, what costs of being a student have you managed to reduce?
Why ask it
Books, equipment, travel to away games, unpaid placements and trip fees add up, and they decide who can take part. Someone who has worked on this will name a cost they removed or covered. A president or dean may point to things outside their control, so ask what is inside it.
If the budget had to be cut, what in student life would you protect?
Why ask it
The question forces a ranking, and there is no single right one. What you want is a named priority and an admission of what would go instead. 'I would hope not to cut anything that touches students' is a refusal to answer, so ask once more.
What have you given clubs, arts, athletics or student media besides praise?
Why ask it
Every candidate says activities are part of an education. The evidence is an adviser's paid time, a room, a budget line, or a rehearsal schedule defended against a competing claim. For a coach or professor, ask how they treat a student's commitment to something other than their own team or course.
What makes students feel safe at a school, and what have you done that helped?
Why ask it
Answers tend to lean toward security, such as lighting, staffing and locked doors, or toward trust, such as knowing whom to tell and being believed. The strongest cover both and mention what students said they wanted. How reports are handled is governed by law and policy that differ by place, so that part is a question for the school and not for the candidate.
When you set a meeting time or a deadline, what do you assume about students' lives outside school?
Why ask it
The mandatory early meeting, the evening rehearsal and office hours only at midday each assume something about who is free. Mentioning jobs, younger siblings to look after or a long commute without being prompted is a sign they have met students like that. If they picture everyone living five minutes away with free afternoons, say who that leaves out.
What has to happen in a new student's first six weeks for them to stay?
Why ask it
A ninth grader, a transfer or a walk-on often decides early whether a place is for them. The answers that hold up have a date attached: an adult who knows their name, one small class, a team or club joined by a certain week. Orientation alone is a thin answer.
Disagreement
Tell us about a time students were angry with you. What did you do in the first few days?
Why ask it
If you are allowed only one question, consider this one. Two details carry it: how soon they met the students face to face, and whether they gave any ground. If they still sound aggrieved, or call the students misinformed, picture being described that way yourself.
How have you responded to a student protest, walkout or petition?
Why ask it
Ask for a real event and what happened to the students afterwards. The candidate should be able to say whom they talked to, what they could agree to and what they could not. The rules on protest depend on the institution and on local law, so learn what the policy is here before you weigh the answer.
What decision of yours was right for the school and unpopular with students?
Why ask it
Anyone who has held authority has one, and coming up empty suggests they have not decided much. Pay attention to how they explained it at the time and whether they stayed in the room to take questions. You can dislike the decision and still respect how it was carried.
When a student and a staff member describe the same event differently, where do you begin?
Why ask it
The sound approach is to hear each person separately and look for anyone else who saw it before forming a view. 'I back my staff' and 'I always believe students' are the same mistake from opposite sides: the outcome is settled before anyone has spoken.
What is discipline for?
Why ask it
It is a short question that produces long, revealing answers. Notice whether the student is still part of the community at the end of the story. Ask for a case where the consequence had to be serious, and what the candidate did for that student afterwards.
Have you ever apologized to a student, a class or a team? What for?
Why ask it
A real apology names what the person did and leaves out 'if anyone was offended'. One example is enough, and how easily it comes tells you as much as the content. A whole career without one means the mistakes went unnoticed, not that there were none.
How have you treated a student journalist or student leader who criticized you in public?
Why ask it
Start by asking whether it has happened; after a long time in charge of anything, it usually has. The reassuring ones kept answering that student's messages and can say what the criticism got right. The worrying ones talk mostly about tone, respect and proper channels.
What do you say when students ask for something you agree with and cannot deliver?
Why ask it
This comes up more often than open conflict: the money is not there, or the decision belongs to a board or another office. A straight candidate says no plainly, explains who does decide and offers the part they can do. 'I will look into it' with no date attached is how requests disappear.
First changes
From what you have seen so far, what would you change first?
Why ask it
The careful answer is one modest thing, plus a plan to listen before touching the large ones. Compare what they pick with what students here complain about. A long list delivered on interview day suggests someone planning to arrive with the answers already written.
What would you leave exactly as it is?
Why ask it
Candidates rehearse the change question and are rarely ready for this one. A good reply shows they noticed what students value: a tradition, a schedule that works, a rule people trust. If nothing comes to mind, they have not looked closely yet.
What will students notice is different by the end of your first year?
Why ask it
The words 'students notice' keep the answer away from strategy documents. Write down what they say. If this person is hired, it is the thing to ask about twelve months later.
How would you spend your first thirty days, and how much of that would be with students?
Why ask it
Most candidates have a listening tour ready, so ask who is on it and what happens to what they hear. The detail to look for is a date when they would report back to students. Listening that never comes back as a summary or a decision is hard to tell from not listening.
How long do you expect to stay?
Why ask it
Students live with turnover: an adviser who leaves mid-thesis, a third coach in four years. Nobody can promise, but a thoughtful answer ties the length of stay to something they want to see finished. Take note if the job is described mainly as a step toward the next one.
What did you expect students to ask today that we have not?
Why ask it
It shows what they think students care about, which may differ from what you asked. It often releases a prepared answer they are proud of, and that is worth hearing too. When time is short, this makes a good final question.
What would you like to ask us?
Why ask it
Real questions for the students in the room mean the candidate takes the student seat as more than a courtesy. Notice whether they ask about student life or only about the process. Answer honestly, the bad parts included, because they are choosing too.
How to be the student voice in a search
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the interviews
Find out what your seat is
Ask the chair three things: whether student members vote, score or only advise, whether the questions are fixed in advance, and how many minutes you will have with each candidate. Some committees give every member one or two questions and expect them read the same way each time. Others leave it open. The answers decide how many of the questions on this page you can use.
Learn the confidentiality rules first
Many searches keep candidates' names and the committee's discussion private, and some ask members to sign an agreement. What you may tell other students, and when, depends on the institution, so ask before you talk to anyone. An open forum is usually public, but check whether it may be recorded or posted.
Collect what students want to know
You are there for more than your own curiosity. Before the first interview, ask student government, a few clubs or teams and several students who join nothing what they would want from the next principal, dean, president, professor or coach. That needs no candidate names. Bring the two or three concerns that came up most and choose your questions to fit them.
Ask what is off limits
Questions about a candidate's age, family, health, religion or plans outside work do not belong in an interview, and exactly where the line sits depends on the law and the employer's rules where you are. Committees are usually briefed on this. If you missed the briefing, ask for it. Everything on this page is about the work and how the candidate has done it.
Choose by the job being filled
For a professor, start with Teaching and add one or two from Access. For a coach, the workload, falling behind and apology questions carry the most. For a principal, dean or president, lean on Access, Disagreement and First changes. Three to five questions is a realistic number for one student in one interview, so rank them and keep the rest as spares.
In the room or at the forum
Give every candidate the same core questions
Answers can only be compared if the candidates were asked the same thing. Keep the wording of your main questions fixed from one candidate to the next and let the follow-ups differ. If the third candidate gets an easier version than the first, your notes will not mean much.
Trade opinions for examples
Nearly every candidate believes in listening to students. Fewer can describe a week when they did it. When an answer begins with 'I believe' or 'I would', follow with 'when did that last come up, and what happened?'
At an open forum, ask one question and sit down
Say your year and what you study or play, so the candidate can aim the answer, then ask in a sentence or two with no speech in front of it. If there is a line behind you, skip the follow-up and let the next student have the turn. The Why here and First changes groups work best with a large room, since everyone present has a stake in the answer.
Notice how you are spoken to
Some candidates answer a student in simpler words than they used for the faculty member a minute earlier, or look at the adults while replying to you. Others tell students exactly what students like to hear. Both are worth a line in your notes.
Write down their words
After three candidates in two days the answers blur together. Note the phrases each one used and the examples they gave, and fill in any score sheet the committee uses straight after the session, while you can still tell them apart.
Weighing what you heard
Examples over promises
Nobody can hold a candidate to something said in an interview. What they did in their last job is the best guide you will get to what they would do in this one. Give more weight to the story about a decision they reversed than to a pledge to always listen.
Ask the students who met them outside the interview
The tour guide, the students at the lunch, the team that sat in on a practice or a sample class all saw the candidate with less polish. If the search rules allow, ask what they noticed: whether the candidate asked them anything, remembered a name, or checked a phone.
Compare the forum with the closed session
If you saw the same candidate in both, set the answers on one topic side by side. Someone who is warmer about student voice in front of a crowd than in the committee room, or the reverse, has shown you which audience they were playing to.
Bring the student view and label it
In the discussion, say which points come from the students you asked and which are your own reading. Other members know budgets and credentials better than you do. You are the one who knows what an ordinary week is like for a student here, so say it plainly even when senior people see the candidate differently.
Mistakes to avoid
Asking about your own grievance
A question about your parking fine, one instructor or last season's playing time tells the committee about you and gives the candidate nothing to answer. Turn it into the general case: how would a student raise a problem like that, and what would happen next?
Trying to catch the candidate out
A trap question puts the candidate on guard and makes the other members discount what you say afterwards. A plain question followed by one request for an example shows more.
Going quiet when the committee deliberates
The interview is half the job. If you were given a seat, the committee wanted a student's judgment, and it cannot use one it never hears. Prepare two sentences on each candidate before the meeting so you are not composing them on the spot.
Sharing what you were asked to keep private
A message to friends naming a candidate can reach that person's current employer, who may not know they applied. Keep to the rules you were given, and if you are unsure whether something can be repeated, ask the chair first.