Procedures And Guidelines For Conducting Faculty And Staff Searches At UMCP

CHAPTER 6

ETHICS AND CONFIDENTIALITY

The conduct of a search process has inherently opposing tensions which relate directly to issues of ethics and confidentiality. In the interests of averting any suspicions of inequity in its conduct, the search committee search committee should maintain accurate records and information which should be available for review and scrutiny by the Equity Administrator. The policy of not sharing certain information regarding the search, i.e. how each member evaluated each candidate, what information references volunteered about candidates etc. is important, to encourage open and honest dialogue in the applicant review process. However, the best way to avoid any perceptions of inequity is to publicly and aggressively seek outstanding women and minority candidates. The bounds of confidentiality as they relate to committee deliberations should not be breached. The issue of "qualified" applicants is an important one. Retaining questionably qualified affirmative action candidates, in order to assure toke n representation, will quickly be recognized as such and will discredit the search process as a whole. On the other hand, token consideration of qualified affirmative action candidates will become apparent as well; both practices are unethical and may ha ve long term negative consequences for the units and the campus.

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