[Vision2020] Panel Hopes to Ease University Hiring

[Tom Hansen]

At a time when university employees are keeping their fingers crosed
paycheck to paycheck, the State Board of Education is considering ending
the ban on hiring spouses.

I can faintly hear . . .

A university president to a department director:  I am sorry to inform
you, Mr. Jones, that, as a result of budget and fiscal restraints, we are
forced to let you go.  On the bright side, though, my wife will be by your
office today to introduce herself to her new staff and color-coordinate
the furniture.

Courtesy of today's (January 22, 2010) Spokesman-Review.

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Panel hopes to ease university hiring
Idaho board wants end to ban on hiring spouses

BOISE – The State Board of Education aims to undo a law forbidding Idaho
university presidents’ spouses from being hired at the schools.

The board argues the law is hurting efforts to attract and retain leaders
and stifling intellectual contributions of husbands or wives forced to
abandon their own academic careers.

The ban has affected Laura Vailas, wife of Idaho State University
President Arthur Vailas. The Ph.D. nutritionist couldn’t apply for an
$85,000 post at ISU recently, for fear of running afoul of Idaho’s bribery
and corruption statutes, Mark Browning, an Ed Board spokesman, told the
House Education Committee on Thursday.

Lawmakers agreed to schedule a hearing for the bill.

But some, including Rep. Bob Nonini, the Republican committee chair from
Coeur d’Alene, said it could put Idaho schools at risk of nepotism
charges. Idaho presidents took jobs with annual salaries of more than
$300,000 knowing their spouses couldn’t go on the university payroll, he
said. “Now they want their wives going to work pulling down 70, 90, 100
thousand dollars?” he asked. “That bothers me.”

Still, presidential hiring experts said Idaho’s restriction appears
broader than rules in place in many other states.

In an era where husband-and-wife academics and administrators are in
demand, such a limitation could eventually hurt recruiting efforts, said
Sheldon Steinbach, a Washington-based lawyer who has worked on college
presidential hiring issues for four decades. “Common sense needs to
dictate what each unique situation requires,” he said.

Other states – including Washington, Virginia, Texas, Missouri and Nevada
– allow such arrangements, with provisions to avoid conflicts. For
instance, the husband of University of Virginia’s new president got a job
at the law school.

In addition to Laura Vailas, a Ph.D. who was an associate dean at the
University of Houston, Idaho’s existing law also would prevent Ruth Nellis
from working at the University of Idaho in Moscow, where her husband,
Duane Nellis, was named president in April. She had been employed at
Kansas State University.

The remote location of Idaho’s public four-year schools means there are
almost no opportunities for spouses to find academic jobs at nearby
institutions, Browning said. ISU, for instance, is 78 miles from Brigham
Young University-Idaho in Rexburg and 105 miles from Utah State University
in Logan.

Though the State Board of Education has pledged to accompany any changes
with policies to prevent conflicts like a spouse working directly under
the president, Nonini fears the link would still be too cozy. For
instance, would the dean of a college at an Idaho university really be
willing to discipline a president’s spouse?

And Rep. Tom Trail, R-Moscow, has gotten negative feedback from UI faculty
and staff who feel such a change is another example of expansion of
presidential power, at a time when tight finances are forcing academic
programs to scaled back.

“They would see this as another blow along the way of losing status and
holding up the privileges of the president’s office,” Trail said.

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Welcome to the state of Idaho where family values are promoted almost as
often as family members.

Seeya tomorrow, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown