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[almostdone]

After reading the threads (yes, I've read them!) I've decided that for the interview where my partner has applied for a job at the same place (different department) I WILL tell them that my partner has applied DURING my on-campus visit. At the place where my partner has NOT applied (because no open jobs were posted), I will NOT tell and will tell if I am offered a job...
How often does this happen? I assume that it is pretty common that there are lots of academic couples, but in your OWN experience, how often has it happened to YOUR department and what did you think about those people? I feel like if I tell them AFTER an offer is made, I will look unethical or just simply bad. While I am open to the idea that I will go to a job without my partner (partner is already in a t-t job so having one t-t for me and nothing for my partner or some adjunct work will NOT improve our situation at all as I am already adjuncting at a few places where we are now). Unfortuantely, the common consensus seems to be that schools in rural areas are more likely to offer a spousal hire, but my interviews are both at urban schools...
In your experience, once you offered a job and then they brought up the partner issue, did you think they were unethical or thought they should have told you before hand? If they told you that their partner did apply for another position at the university and you contacted the other department but the other department did not want the person's spouse, did it lead you to NOT offer the job to the candidate even if the candidate was your first choice?

[oldfullprof]

No ethics problem.  As a new faculty, you probably can't swing a spousal hire (these are for senior people, generally, with grants, many pubs, etc.-- where they are very desirable and others could compete for them)-- so it's none of the search committee's business whether a spouse is trying to come there in some capacity.  If you bring up a spouse after an offer is made (as a new faculty), you could try to negotiate adjunct work for them typically.  This is normal.

At one place I taught, a candidate started mentioning a full-time spousal hire immediately (as a fund raiser).  She was ABD and had no pubs.  No grants.  No leverage.  We liked her (even though the spousal hire raised eyebrows) and made her an offer, mentioning that there were plenty of local colleges in addition to ours.  She declined the offer.  In all likelyhood, she was doing a practice interview year (at the behest of her way-overrated mentor) before taking a SLAC job next year.