An important historians group now prohibits hiring committees from recording job interviews at hiring annual conference.

Given the spate of successful lawsuits being brought by conservatives on campus, as well as the embarrassing videos of professors going on ultra-progressive rants that become instant YouTube hits, one can see the logic behind the new ruling.

Leave no evidence behind!

The beige hotel-cum-interview rooms, the nerves, the sudden feeling of kinship with cattle — job interviews at academic conferences can hardly be described as comfortable. But the American Historical Association is trying to make the experience a little more “humane,” and recently decided that hiring committees can’t videotape or otherwise record interviews.

“One of the big issues has always been the anxiety level of people on the job market at our annual meetings,” said James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association. “We do everything we can to bring that down to a reasonable level.”

Past adjustments in favor of interviewees include offering hiring committees less expensive “subletted” suites (rented by AHA), to make the experience of interviewing in a hotel room a bit less awkward, he said.

More recently, there were reports of graduate students being recorded by hiring committees, adding to their stress.

Consistent with AHA’s other policies about recording, including conference panelists, the association’s initial impulse was to require permission to record interviews, Grossman said. “But someone very astutely pointed out that if you’re a job candidate, you can’t say no.”

So AHA’s Council recently approved an addition to the organizations’ Guidelines for the Hiring Process saying that “The AHA considers it unacceptable to record or videotape any employment interview activity that takes place in conjunction with the AHA’s Annual Meeting.”

Grossman said reports from aggrieved interviewees about videotaping were few, and that the practice was not widespread in general. (He said hiring committees might attempt it if a professor can’t attend an interview, for instance).

But he hoped that the new measure would help “preserve people’s spontaneity” during a 20-minute preliminary interview.