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[gloxinia]

If this question already exists please link me, I searched but did not find a discussion regarding this.

What policies are you aware of at universities regarding hiring alumns into faculty positions?

Thanks!
gloxinia

[charlesr]

None

[zharkov]

Just to clarify, but do you mean BAs or PhDs? 

I've known BAs who got their PhD elsewhere and returned (eventually) to their alma mater.  No policy, per se plus or minus.

As for PhDs, again no written policy, but I'd guess that we'd consider one of our own only after he or she had five or more years experience elsewhere.  Not hire, just consider.

OP, how does your question relate to diversity? 

[gloxinia]

I'm presently working at a U that has a long and strong history of internal hires and hiring former grad students. It is an encouraged behavior here. At the same time, the university is constantly talking about wanting to improve diversity (racial, sexual orientation, religion, heck even diversity of thought, etc) but continue to hire their own ... which in a pool this homogeneous does NOTHING to improve diversity. I am one of the few hired in my dept. that is not from this locality or state - my previous universities have all had some form of policy that basically would not consider a grad student for a TT position without significant amount of experience elsewhere nor would they give priority to applicants with a degree from their university. I expected many universities would have policies prohibiting this behavior - written or unwritten?

thanks!

[gsawpenny]

So, you are at an Ivy?  Least diverse faculty, in terms of educational reach, that I know of.

[totoro]

1/3 of the faculty in my department got their PhDs from this university. This is much more common outside the US.

[renaissoxx]

That's just it... there is no policy for this sort of thing.  It's not like a conspiracy either.  People who are in the right position just use subtle manipulations to have things work out in the way they are most comfortable with. 

When intelligent people are unintentionally guilty of such behavior, it is usually because they can relate better to those similar to them.  They more easily understand where that person is coming from, and thus are more likely to accurately interpret what they say. 

Some people create ridiculous straw man arguments like "Americans are lazy" and spread these ideas among coworkers, so it is always hanging in the back of their mind when evaluating anything a member of that group says or does. 

The worst case is when a group has deep seated insecurities towards members of a particular race, that may have been guilty of past transgressions against them.  Under these conditions, blatant intentional disregard for any positive traits or accomplishments might be exhibited by multiple people without ever even coordinating their behavior or actions.

[oldfullprof]

Pacific Northwest does this (hire their own way too much - regionally if not by university.)  If you think Americans are lazy, you've never worked for a firm that has European offices (particularly in England.)  I've coordinated things with Europeans, and even the businesspeople put American academics to shame.  Talk about passive-aggression, flat refusing to do the work, taking months on a one-week project, etc.  Unbelievable.

[betterslac]

1/3 of the faculty in my department got their PhDs from this university. This is much more common outside the US.

Yep, same with where I am here at large non-US university. I went to lunch with a faculty member from another department who went here as an undergraduate. He said in this country that having attended a university as an undergraduate is pretty much a prerequisite for getting a faculty position there. He would not have a shot at rival big foreign university, and graduates from rival big foreign university don't have a shot here. Many go for graduate work in the States, though there is also some clustering of where they go there as well.

However, as a foreigner, I am pretty much free from those strictures, though I suspect that if it came down to a graduate of x university and a foreigner for a position at x, the graduate of x would get the job in the vast majority of cases.

[southerntransplant]

My PhD institution forbade hiring of its graduates until they've had positions in the interim. My PhD advisor graduated from my PhD institution, but held two positions at other universities before returning to his alma mater.

[mouseman]

Once again, there is probably a difference between disciplines.  While Ivies are especially notorious for hiring their own, in many of the STEM fields this is not the case.  Possibly this is because the programs in these fields are spread across many universities, so "the best" doesn't mean "PhD at small specific subset of universities".  Once this has started, this also means that any of these departments has many faculty from other places also come from a philosophy of avoiding hiring their own.  Another issue is that in STEM fields:  grant money + publications >> importance of doctorate granting university.
When the philosophy of "hiring your own" is not the result of "we produce the best" but because of pure academic nepotism/incest ("my job will go to one of my students when I retire", "nobody else understands us", and so forth), there is probably no difference between disciplines.  This is the case in Israeli universities (except when there is a chance to hire World Famous Person).  I've also heard people complain about this in Italian and German universities, and I've seen it some Swiss universities, but I don't know what the situation is in other places in Europe.
At UIUC (where I did my PhD), and at my present university, the policy is like that ST mentioned, and I think that is the most common policy across public R1's in the Midwest (at least as far as I've seen).