Education Law Education 520 Business Law

Hiring policy

To avoid an anti-discriminatory lawsuit regarding hiring practices, an employer should declare him or herself an 'equal opportunity employer.' To be compliant with the laws enforced by the EEOC, an employer must not discriminate based upon race, color, religion, national origin, or sex. The employer should also not discriminate on the basis of pregnancy, age, disability or genetic information (Laws enforced by the EEOC, 2012, EEOC).

If the institution wishes to pursue a strategy of affirmative action regarding the hiring and promoting of employees he or she should state it clearly in employment literature, usually in the form of the phrase that 'members of historically discriminated-against groups are encouraged to apply.' However, the employer must be careful not to use a quota system, or set a goal for how many members of such groups will be hired to positions, based upon their membership in historically-discriminated against categories alone.

Ultimately, the goal of a sensitive hiring policy should be the promotion of diversity, not tokenism, and it should be noted that the U.S. Supreme Court in recent years has taken a more narrow definition of what constitutes quota systems when evaluating the constitutionality...

Thus, erring on the side of caution would be advised when enforcing a policy of affirmative action. For example, "in a landmark decision in 2003, the Court ruled that a public university could consider an applicant's race during the law school admissions process. The Court, however, said that public universities could not provide 'broad and arbitrary advantages' to each minority applicant" (Affirmative action, 2012, Labor employment law). Although this was in reference to student enrollment at a law school, it is important to be mindful of such principles when setting anti-discrimination law. Also, the Court ruled in favor of white firefighters claiming reverse discrimination when their scores were thrown out on "promotional exams that officials said left too few minorities qualified" (Mears 2009).
Employers must be sensitive to charges of reverse discrimination when creating hiring policies as well as responding to the need to honor the value of diversity. The institution should note that "ongoing administrative reviews of hiring practices" and "frequent affirmative action analyses of faculty, staff, and student units to determine 'challenge areas'" are part of the workplace culture so employees understand the ideological orientation of the department before applying (Affirmative action, 2012, Labor employment law).

Tenure policy

The different types of 'levels' instructors should be clearly stated in the guidelines. For example, at most institutions, these levels take the form of instructors or adjuncts, assistant professors, associate professors and (full) professors (Tenure policy, 2012, Carnegie Mellon). Only professors can be granted tenure. Tenure, once granted, can only be abolished based upon the following criteria: "(1) retirement; (2) resignation; (3) death; (4) commencement of an accepted superseding appointment…