Washington State University
BUSINESS POLICIES AND PROCEDURES MANUAL

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Nepotism

Discrimination against an employee or an applicant because of marital status or any other relationship with another employee is not allowed. WSU's objective is to employ qualified persons in all employment positions.

The following exceptions to the policy apply:

No faculty member, department chair, dean, or other administrative officer shall vote, make recommendations, or in any other way participate in the decision of any matter which may directly affect the appointment, tenure, promotion, salary, or any other status or interest of such person's parent, child, spouse, domestic partner, sibling, in-law, or close relative. (Faculty Manual)

No administrative/professional or classified staff employee shall supervise, vote, make recommendations, or in any other way participate in the decision of any matter that may directly affect the appointment, tenure, promotion, salary, or other status or interest of such employee's parent, child, spouse, partner, sibling, in-law, or close relative. (Administrative and Professional Personnel Handbook, Classified Staff Handbook)

Definition: The term "partner" includes an individual sharing the employee's residence who has reciprocal duties to and does provide financial support for one another.

The administrative/professional and classified staff exceptions and regulations apply to temporary and any other WSU employment.

Each supervisor is responsible for reporting violations of this policy to his or her appointing authority.

Upon hire, an employee is responsible for disclosing any domestic partner relationship with anyone in his or her supervisory chain.

Qualified members of the same family (parent, child, spouse, domestic partner, sibling, in-law, or close relative) may be employed in the same department or other comparable administrative unit. However, faculty members must remove themselves from participating in any decisions affecting family members.

Qualified members of the same family (parent, child, spouse, partner, sibling, in-law, or close relative) may be employed in the same department or other comparable administrative unit except in the following situations:

• When one member of a family is responsible for making decisions in personnel matters involving the appointment, retention, or salary of another member of the same family.


• When one member of a family is responsible for supervising, evaluating, or auditing the work of another member of the same family.


• When other circumstances exist which place members of the same family in situations of actual conflict between the interests of the University and the interests of the family members.

An appointing authority may request an exception permitting employment of family members in superior/subordinate relationships.

The appointing authority prepares a memorandum that explains why the appointment is in the best interests of the program. The appointing authority submits the memorandum to the appropriate vice president.

If approved by the vice president, the memorandum, signed approvals, and the appointing Personnel Action form are submitted to Human Resource Services.

For additional information, contact the Center for Human Rights, French 225, mail code 1022, telephone 335-8288.

See 70.15 for a discussion of conflict of interest regarding purchasing from family members. (RCW 42.52)