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Guidance on Policy 6.1.4, Avoiding Nepotism in the Faculty Context

This is intended to provide guidance on managing the occurrence and/or appearance of nepotism in the faculty context. The focus is on specific situations where faculty family members or close personal relations* are employed and working in the same unit (department, school, or college) and one member is the other’s direct supervisor (or in another senior decision-making role, e.g., committee chair), in which an occurrence or appearance of nepotism could harm one or both faculty members, as well as the unit’s faculty in general.  

 When a direct reporting line between the impacted roles cannot be avoided, the recommended practice is to assign direct supervisory responsibility of the affected employee to a third party, preferably to the next-level supervisor. The next-level supervisor (e.g., the dean or dean designee regarding department chairs) should develop a conflict management plan to ensure that decisions involving the affected employee in the unit are made objectively. The next-level supervisor will assume responsibility for issues related to performance evaluation, compensation/SIP, appointment details, or promotion. The next-level supervisor may consult with their local HR partner, the Office of the Provost, or General Counsel with any questions or to review the plan itself. 

 The conflict management plan should: 

  1. Assign alternate supervisory responsibility in place of the supervising faculty member;
  2. Arrange for periodic check-ins between the next-level supervisor and affected employee to ensure the comfort level of all parties; and 
  3. Be shared with and signed by both concerned faculty members (the supervisor and the affected employee), the next-level supervisor, and the Dean (if not the next-level supervisor) as a memorandum of understanding. This should be retained in unit records. 

 Additional possible scenarios that could require a conflict management plan to avoid the occurrence or appearance of nepotism include: 

  • Voting on hiring, tenure, emeritus, and/or promotion of the supervisory faculty member’s family member or close personal relation. The supervisory faculty member must recuse themself from the entire process and have the dean/designee assume responsibility in the chair’s place.
  • Annual reviews of the supervisory faculty member’s family member or close personal relation.
  • Compensation, SIP, or financial decisions impacting the supervisory faculty member’s family member or close personal relation in the same faculty.
  • Shared funding sources, such as a family member or close personal relation being supported by a faculty member’s grant or contract.
  • Serving as the faculty of record or participating in the evaluation of a student who is a family member or close personal relation. 

 *Personal relationships in the context of this policy are defined as relationships in which there is a strong personal bond between individuals, including friendships and consensual romantic and/or sexual relationships, and not including solely professional relationships. In that light, we ask that faculty members evaluate their work-related interactions with others in our community and recuse themselves from situations where the execution of their role has the potential to unduly either harm or provide benefit to either party.