Searle was the founding director of the UW Humanities and Arts Computer Center, the former director of the Walter Chapin Simpson Humanities Center, and the director of the College Studies Program. He is one of the founding faculty members of the Program in Criticism and Theory, Comparative History of Ideas Program, and the Textual Studies Program. He has extensively served as the Graduate Program Coordinator in Comparative Literature. He served for three decades on the UW Intellectual Property Management Advisory Committee, and as chair in the year before the committee's function was integrated into UW Co-Motion. Searle's current project is the establishment of the "Tautegory Institute," for the development of cross disciplinary conversations, critical reading, and research.
