Guidelines for Spousal Hires
In the course of hiring, a department may find a preferred candidate requesting that
her/his spouse or partner also be considered for a hire. Spousal hiring can be a powerful
tool for recruiting and retaining first-rate faculty. Done right, it can bring two great
faculty members to CU-Boulder.
Most spousal hiring requests involve two tenure-track positions. If the spousal hire is for
a non-tenure track position or non-academic job, it may be easier for units to make
accommodations. If the spouse is seeking a non-academic position at the university or
beyond the university, then the hiring department can make use of the Greater Colorado
Higher Education Recruitment Consortium (HERC). For more information on the
Greater Colorado HERC, please see the following link:
http://www.hercjobs.org/colorado/
A spousal hiring situation may involve a spouse seeking a position in the unit that is
making the initial hire, or the spouse may be seeking a position in another academic unit.
In the first case, the unit should follow its own guidelines on hiring. If the unit has special
guidelines for spousal hiring, those should, of course, be followed (a sample of such
guidelines is attached); if no specific guidelines are in place, the department should
follow its general rules for hiring, with the understanding that there will not be an initial
open search. In the second case, the chair of the initial hiring department should consult
with the chair or dean of the other unit, indicating that the hiring department has a
potential candidate for the other unit who is a spouse of an individual being recruited.
The chair or dean will request a vita and perhaps some other basic information and then
will consult with the appropriate body within her/his unit about how to proceed. If the
unit decides to consider the spousal candidate, then it should follow its own guidelines.
A unit being asked to consider hiring a spousal candidate should evaluate the request with
three key questions in mind:
1. Does this person meet the standards of the unit; that is, does the individual under
consideration have the profile of someone who can succeed in the reappointment
and tenure review process?
2. Would the candidate strengthen the unit?
3. Would this hire serve the interests of the campus; that is, can the unit make the
accommodation in order to strengthen a fellow unit?
For some units and some potential hires, questions #2 and #3 may, together, present
something of a dilemma. Finding the right balance between the unit’s needs and those of
the wider campus community is a necessary deliberation in these situations. Each
department should give due consideration to the needs of the other unit alongside its own
interests.
If a decision is made to make an offer for a spousal hire, the hiring department must file a
search waiver request.
The starting point for conversations about funding spousal hires is that the original unit
will pay 1/3 of the salary, the unit making the spousal hire will pay 1/3 (if the original
and spousal unit are the same, then that unit contributes at least 2/3), and the Provost will
pay 1/3. Negotiations begin from that point. The Provost must be persuaded that the
proposed hire is advantageous to the campus. All such hires are contingent on the
availability of funds.