Full
Full searches employ “good faith efforts” to cast the broadest possible net to recruit a diverse and qualified applicant pool. Full searches demonstrate the University’s commitment to and compliance with, all applicable state and federal laws, University policies and affirmative action and equal opportunity principles and guidelines.  Conducting full searches in the spirit of the law mitigates the University’s potential non-compliance with statutory obligations. Full searches should be conducted for all vacant positions.

Audit
Audits bypass the formal recruiting and screening process.  These types of searches are for temporary/end date research and non-tenure track faculty positions

Faculty hired into Visiting titles can be filled through an audit.  In Residence positions should be filled through a full search.

Research positions filled through an audit are also end date and temporary and in most cases relate to the term of a grant or research project. Post-doctoral fellows can also be filled through an audit.

Management/Confidential positions are rarely filled through the audit process.  These infrequent instances are for positions that are temporary with end dates less than one year and address a crucial need to immediately fill a position vacancy with a critical function or a highly specialized project. A full search will be conducted to fill the positions permanently.

UCPEA positions are never filled through the audit process.

The hiring department must submit a sufficient explanation, in narrative form, on the implausibility of conducting a full search to fill the position and documentation detailing:

• specialized skills, reputation and unique achievements of the hire, and a narrative explanation of the limited availability of others with these types of qualifications;
• networking or other types of recruiting activities (including professional association and
• good faith attempts to identify goal applicants including letters and emails sent to colleagues and professionals at other institutions requesting assistance in recruiting goal applicants and a comment on the availability of goal applicants for such

Limited
Limited searches are conducted to only draw applicants from the internal University population and must be approved by OIE before initialization.  Positions filled through a limited search require a specific and unique knowledge, skills, or experience that could only be gained through working at the University.  These positions perform business operations, crisis management or health and safety functions that are critical.

• affirming that the position requires these specific skills, knowledge or experience;
• affirming that the concept of on the job training is unreasonable (not inconvenient); and
• describing any other existing factors to strengthen the argument that a full search is irrational.

Waiver (Appointment)
Waivers, like audits, bypass the formal recruiting and screening process but are for permanent faculty or high-level non-union staff positions. These types of requests are very rarely submitted and approved as they jeopardize the University’s compliance with statutory and legal obligations.  Faculty and permanent non-union staff must meet the definition of “pre-eminence”, with outstanding, unique and unparalleled research, scholarship, accomplishment or field of specialization; incomparable with potentially available applicants.  This hire would result in increased prominence for the University.

• comprehensive documentation supporting the preeminence of the hire, noting achievements that have received national or global recognition and commenting on the hire’s importance to the University’s goals; and
• a narrative explanation of the availability of others with the hire’s skills, the extent to which the University must compete against other institutions to recruit the hire and a comment regarding networking or other recruiting activity that led to the identification of the hire.

The Office of Institutional Equity has the discretion to grant exemptions to the above general procedures on a case-by-case basis in consultation with the appropriate University offices.

Please contact a member of the Employement Equity Staff or (860) 486-2944 if you have any questions regarding the above.