Nepotism

Date: April 2024

Philosophy and Purpose: In an effort to provide an environment that promotes fairness and to avoid conflicts of interest, the College avoids hiring, transferring, or promoting relatives of employees to positions where one has supervision or influence over the other's employment. While the College does not prohibit relatives and those with close personal relationships from working here, it will not allow work relationships of these individuals to be in a supervisory chain of command, in areas of overlapping fiduciary responsibility, or to create other possible conflicts of interest.

Policy: If a department seeks to hire an individual who is related in any capacity to another staff member, especially within a department, prior approval must be obtained from Human Resources. The same holds true for promotions. It is incumbent upon the supervisor to disclose any relationships that exist or develop within the department.

The College retains the right to reassign any employee without regard to job grade or position when the relationship is confirmed and is in violation of this policy. Each employee is also responsible for disclosing relationships to both their immediate supervisor and to the Human Resources at the point of hire, promotion or when a relationship develops.

The following relationships are covered by this policy: spouse, domestic partner, parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, children, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, and relatives by marriage (in-laws). When a relationship develops which would violate this policy Human Resources, in conjunction with the Senior Officer and as applicable the President’s Office, will work with the affected individuals to resolve the situations so that one may not influence the employment of the other. The needs of the College will determine the resolution in such a case, which may involve a transfer or termination of employment.