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[larryc]

The perennial talk about negotiating spousal hires has me wondering how often such opportunities even really exist, and I thought a poll was in order.

[hegemony]

Yes.  We don't make them in every instance, but they are not unusual, on the junior level as well as the senior.

[lorelei]

My university does not (and I have been told state law would not permit anyway), despite some vague assertions of "support" for dual career couples. Public university.

Perhaps people responding to the poll could also say what kind of school they are at? (Public/Private/R1/SLAC etc)

[mouseman]

Depends - some department do within their department.  However, despite the University advertising about how family-friendly it is, and despite the University having an official spousal hire policy when the spouse is in a different field, that sort of hire has never, to my knowledge, occurred (and I've looked into it).

[polly_mer]

I'm too new here to know what the institution does on a regular basis, but my department has three married couples in it, I know of another department that has a recent hire married couple in it, and there appears to be a lot of duplicate last names in the university directory that don't blend well with the area's ethnic heritage.

[systeme_d_]

Midwestern State U here.

We normally cannot make spousal hires at the same time as the initial hire, but sometimes, we can make spousal hires in subsequent years.

Here are two examples from my university:

Offer made.  During negotiations, hired person wishes to include a spousal hire (TT) in contract.  This is not possible, even though hired person is in a highly desired area, with demand outstripping supply on a national scale.  However, spouse is hired as a lecturer.  Two years later, a TT spot opens up, and the spouse is hired.

Another offer is made and accepted.  Two years later, hired person gets married.  Spouse is hired as an adjunct.  The next year, the hired person (who brings in money and is in a pivotal department) gets an offer from elsewhere, and uses this offer to negotiate a spousal hire on the TT. 

[mended_drum]

We make spousal hires when the department which hires the spouse needs another faculty member and when that department does not reject the individual (which has, once or twice, happened).  At a small college, these opportunities occur occasionally.  Unless a department has a pretty high student-faculty ratio, it can be hard to persuade the board to add a line for a spousal hire--but it does happen, especially if the spouse can bring something new to the college.  If "spousal hire" includes hiring the spouse to a staff position, then you can raise that to "fairly often." 

Well, it did happen fairly often; in the current economy, I suspect it will be much more difficult.

[daniel_von_flanagan]

We had a policy tied to a pot of money, but the latter is disappearing and I expect the former will follow.  That policy was that the dean could at her discretion create a 1-3 year position for a spouse, after which the spouse should apply for a tt position.  This assumed that a tt position would be opening in that period, and that the candidate would get credit towards tenure for the temp years.  It was up to the couple to convince the department that it was in their best interest to hire the trailing spouse.  As far as I know it was only a success when it was part of a retention offer, not a hire offer. - DvF

[obprof]

Administrators can always have their spouses hired.

Junior female faculty can never have their spouses hired.

All other cases fall somewhere in between.

[svenc]

My experience at two large public institutions:

1) Makes them all the time, with a formal spousal hiring policy that outlined the approval process for such requests, and a formula for how the positions were to be funded (across the originating department, the spousal "receiving" department, and the central administration).

2) Makes them fairly often, but the approval process is not particularly formal or standardized.

[daniel_von_flanagan]

Administrators can always have their spouses hired.

Junior female faculty can never have their spouses hired.

This is nearly universal, so doesn't count. - DvF

[janewales]

Administrators can always have their spouses hired.

Junior female faculty can never have their spouses hired.

This is nearly universal, so doesn't count. - DvF

I actually know a junior female appointee, humanities field, who did indeed get a position-- a tenure-track position-- for her trailing spouse. At a really good university.

[mouseman]

Administrators can always have their spouses hired.

Junior female faculty can never have their spouses hired.

This is nearly universal, so doesn't count. - DvF

I actually know a junior female appointee, humanities field, who did indeed get a position-- a tenure-track position-- for her trailing spouse. At a really good university.

As DvF wrote, nearly universal.  Some exceptions exist.  Hiring of a female trailing spouse is easier.  Interestingly, it seems the result of two apposite forces:  first, a tendency of many in academia to value women less, and thus be less interested in going to the same lengths to retain a junior female faculty member, while, additionally, from the total opposite trend, there is often money to increase recruitment of women, which can go for spousal hires.

[daniel_von_flanagan]

I didn't trim the quote enough.  What I meant to say was nearly universal was the ability of administrators to get their spouse hired. - DvF

[ls410]

I've never seen it at my current job (small state school) but it was fairly common at my grad school (large state school).  3 profs in my department were part of spousal hires (2 brought their spouses and 1 was the trailing spouse).  The common demoninator was that none of the couples were in the same field