Faculty Search Waiver

Under limited circumstances, departments may obtain permission to forgo an open competitive search by requesting a search waiver. A faculty search waiver may be requested for faculty vacancies filled by a pre-identified candidate or temporary faculty/faculty equivalents. Search waivers should be used rarely and only under the following circumstances:

Special Emergency Need (e.g., a faculty member becomes ill and cannot perform his/her duties, and a replacement is needed to prevent disruption to business operations).

• Interdepartmental promotion or reassignment
• Spousal hire with approved documentation
• Paid temporary faculty or faculty equivalent
• Candidate identified on a different open search (Evergreen, Interfolio, external search agency)

All justifications for the search waiver must be provided for approval within the applicant tracking system. The Office of Faculty Affairs must approve all search waivers before a department makes an employment offer to a candidate using the search waiver process. The Associate Vice Provost, Faculty Affairs, or the appropriate designee has the final approving authority for faculty search waivers. 

Search waiver justifications cannot be based on past practice (e.g., "we've always done it this way"). The justification must explain the circumstances necessitating the request for the waiver, why a posting for the vacancy is not required, and why no active search should be held.

When selecting "interdepartmental promotion," as a justification, the department must provide information about the qualifications of the internal candidate selected (and the position vacancy status prior to the promotion). Departments must provide information detailing:

• Whether the vacancy was newly created or filled by the promotion of an internal candidate.
• The names of all candidates considered for the vacancy.
• The names of all internal candidates that were eligible and not considered for the position, and an explanation for why they were not considered.

When selecting “spousal hire with approved documentation,” provide information on the candidate selected, the spouse, department, and position in which the spouse is being hired. All correspondence approving the spousal hire must be added to the applicant tracking system's attachment tab of the requisition.

iCIMS Training Guides are available for assistance with creating a requisition.