The employment of relatives in the same area of an organization may cause serious conflicts and problems with favoritism and employee morale. In addition to claims of partiality in treatment at work, personal conflicts from outside the work environment can be carried into day-to-day working relationships.

No employee, therefore, shall hire, evaluate, or supervise a member of the employee’s family, without the written consent of the President. Employment may exist elsewhere at the University, however, provided that neither spouse nor other relative participate in a decision-making process affecting the appointment, retention, tenure, work assignments, promotion, demotion, or salary of the other spouse or relative.

University employees cannot be transferred into such a reporting relationship. If the relative relationship is established after employment, the individuals concerned will decide who is to be transferred. If that decision is not made within 30 calendar days, management will decide.

In other cases where a conflict or the potential for conflict arises, even if there is no supervisory relationship involved, the parties may be separated by reassignment or terminated from employment.

No faculty member may grade a family member without the written consent of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs.

For these purposes, a family member is a person’s spouse, parent, grandparent, step-parent, child, grandchild, step-child, sibling, in-law, uncle, aunt, niece, nephew or cousin.