Hunter
05/23/22
A hiring process designed to attract a diverse pool of candidates was bypassed over 150 times last year at Iowa’s three state-run universities, with over two-thirds of them at the University of Iowa.
The Gazette reports that the schools used a waiver process to bypass the open search process, citing reasons such as dual career appointments, when a new university faculty member is recruited and their spouse is provided a job. That reason is also used when the universities promote existing employees or hire postdoctoral students.
The University of Iowa has also used the “uniquely qualified candidate” reason to bypass the open search process, as when they hired Liz Tovar as Associate Vice President and Executive officer for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in January 2021, and Kevin Kregel as Provost the following month.
The waiver has also been used in the Athletic Department, such as when interim Strength and Conditioning Coach Ray Braithwaite was promoted following his taking over the position when Chris Doyle left in 2020 amid allegations of racial discrimination.
The 106 waivers issued in 2021 were 23 percent more than the previous year at the U of I. The newspaper says that given the mission of the campuses’ open search procedures, which are designed to comply with federal and state equal employment laws and regulations, the UI’s policy warns against using waivers. Officials said that the process is intended to be used sparingly, and it is.
However, the Gazette says that their April 2021 request to review search waivers issued that year up to that time was denied, citing confidentiality issues. They also denied the release of employees hired without a search and their annual salaries. The paper filed a complaint with the Public Information Board that August, which was settled after many delays. The University of Iowa now has a search waiver release policy that would make search waiver request forms, comments and position requirements public. They have not provided justification letters for the waivers, though they indicated that they would.
The Executive Director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, Randy Evans, tells the Gazette that withholding access to documents regarding open search waivers invites public distrust of the UI’s commitment to diversity and inclusion hiring practices.