FDU Policies: Conflict of Interest

This Policy supports the statement of the Board of Trustees on Ethics and Conflict of Interests that a perceived lack of ethical conduct will undermine the high level of integrity that University constituencies should expect in University decisions and operations. The University is committed to fostering high ethical standards of performance in the operation of the University and its educational program by assuring that actual or potential conflicts of interest, or the appearance of conflicts of interest, are avoided.

It is expected that each University employee will maintain a commitment to honesty and integrity, which would be violated if the employee seeks to achieve personal or economic advantage in derogation from the employee’s exercise of sound independent judgment or the interests of the University.

I. PURPOSE

This Policy gives direction on what actions by employees are to be avoided and what steps employees should take to avoid actual or perceived conflicts of interest. It has two subject areas: (1) Avoiding conflicts of interest in decisions involving University assets and operations and assuring that business transactions with organizations outside the University do not serve the personal interest of University employees over the best interest of the University. (2) Avoiding the actuality or appearance of nepotism. Effective implementation of this Policy will uphold the fairness and integrity of the University’s employment and personnel systems and of its academic evaluations.

II. CONFLICT OF INTERESTS IN UNIVERSITY BUSINESS OPERATIONS

A. Definitions:

For the purpose of this section of the Policy, the following terms shall be defined as indicated:

"Administrative Officer" -- means employees of the University with duties and responsibilities directly related to the operations of the University, including those in a position to affect decisions as to the purchase or disposal of property or services, settlement of claims or other business obligations. The definition of Administrative Officer includes, but is not limited to, those in the following positions:

The President
Any Vice President, Associate Vice President, Assistant Vice President
The General Counsel
The Treasurer and the Controller
The Campus Provosts
Any Director or Dean reporting directly to a Vice President or Provost
Executive Assistants to the PresidentThe University Director of Purchasing and his/her subordinates
The Assistant to the Vice President for Administration and his/her subordinates
The Director of Academic Computing

"Business Transaction" -- any sale, purchase, contract, lease, license, settlement, award of aid, loan, or agreement to which the University is a party or a beneficiary. A Business Transaction under a multi-year contract is considered terminated when the contract term is over.

"Conflict of Interest" -- occurs when an employee or Trustee (together referred to as "person") is in a position to affect or to influence significantly the business transactions of the University with the Organization in which the person has an interest. A person is considered to have an interest in an Organization

1. in which that person and/or his/her immediate family own more than 5% of the equity, directly or beneficially.

2. that is a creditor of that person (except a home mortgage obtained on market terms from a bank or similar lending organization shall not be so considered); or that owes the person more than $500 (except that any kind of saving or checking account or generally available banking arrangement or a holding of less than 5% of any part of a publicly issued debt offering shall not be so considered).

3. that employs, has employed within the 24 months before a Business Transaction, or has an arrangement to employ, to retain as a consultant, to fund the research of, or to pay a commission or stipend to that person and/or his immediate family.

4. that has retained as a consultant or paid a commission or stipend to or is funding the research of that person or his immediate family.

5. that intends to provide or has provided the person or his or her immediate family with goods and services on other than market terms, gratuities or gifts of more than $200 in the previous 12 months (not including examination copies of text books or the value of any business meals).

"Employee" -- includes any person placed on the payroll or retained as a consultant, whether or not an independent contractor.

"Immediate Family" -- a person's spouse, parents and parents-in law, children, siblings and their spouses.

"Organization" -- a trust or corporation (including any subsidiary or parent, or a corporation under common control of such corporation), joint venture, partnership, unincorporated association, or individual proprietorship.

“Trustee” -- means a member of the University’s Board of Trustees.

B. Board of Trustees:

Trustees shall disclose any known conflict of interest and shall avoid participating in any decision or advocating any subject matter before the Board or with University personnel in which the Trustee or a member of his or her immediate family has a real or potential conflict of interest. When a Trustee learns that a business transaction presents a conflict of interest, he or she must make an immediate, full disclosure to the Chairman of the Board (or in the case of the Chairman, to a Vice Chairman) of his or her interest in the subject. The Trustee shall not participate in any discussion of or decision on the issue. Failure to make disclosure shall void any resulting agreement at the option of the University.

Within the provisions of the prior paragraph, this policy shall not prohibit a Trustee, an organization that employs a Trustee, or an organization in which a Trustee has financial interest (1) from pursuing a University R.F.P. or contract to be awarded by competitive bidding or (2) from supplying services to the University as a public utility.

The General Counsel of the University shall obtain a disclosure form from each Trustee prior to a Trustee's first attendance at a Board meeting and from all Board members at least every two years.

C. Administrative Officers:

Administrative Officers shall immediately disclose to their administrative superior any known conflict of interest and shall avoid participating in any decisions or deliberations related to a University Business Transaction in which a potential or actual conflict of interest exists. An administrative superior in a reporting line to the Executive Vice President shall report these disclosures to the Executive Vice President in a timely manner. The administrative superior of the President is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees. A potential conflict of interest includes the preparation or approval of a R.F.P. in cases in which an "Organization" (as defined above) is likely to respond. They shall also disclose any conflicts of interest related to any research in which they are involved.

Any Administrative Officer who fails to disclose a conflict of interest shall be disciplined in line with the nature and the severity of infraction. When appropriate, discipline shall include restitution to the University of the benefit received or the value of any opportunity the University lost. Administrative Officers also have an obligation to disclose knowledge of another employee’s potential conflict of interest when they have reason to believe a conflict of interest may exist.

D. Faculty and Staff:

1. In General

Every member of the Faculty and Staff of the University shall immediately disclose to his or her administrative superior any businevss transactions which present an actual or potential conflict of interest. As applied to Faculty, failure to disclose will be considered "Adequate Cause" on which to take discipline under the Faculty Handbook, as a failure to observe professional standards. Faculty and Staff shall also disclose any conflict of interest related to any research in which they are involved.

2. Provisions of Particular Application to Faculty and other Department Members

a. Consulting and Related Activities

The ability of faculty members to engage in non-University Employment in the mode of outside consulting is set forth in the Faculty Handbook, which indicates that the primary professional responsibility of each faculty member is to the University. In explication of the definition of “Conflict of Interest,” outside consulting activities bear upon this Policy as follows:

(i) A faculty member cannot have a consulting arrangement with an organization at the same time he or she is teaching a class containing a student who is involved in negotiating or evaluating the consulting arrangement.* The conflict of interest, in actuality or appearance, is similar to that discussed in that part of the Policy related to nepotism. As also provided in that section of this Policy, no University employee -- faculty or staff -- shall intervene with a faculty member or administrator on behalf of a student who is negotiating or evaluating a consulting arrangement with that University employee.

Faculty members should be sensitive to the realities and appearances of a situation covered by this Policy and should not, for example, teach a class with a student described above in expectation of submitting a proposal for a consulting arrangement to the organization for which the student works in a capacity described in the foregoing paragraph.

(ii) No full time faculty member may represent or advise a client in a matter adverse to the University or its direct interest, for example, as a lawyer or expert. The University’s direct interests include those of the subsidiary organizations it controls.

Should a part-time faculty member undertake such representation or work, he/she must give the earliest possible notice to the University through the Campus Provost. In some situations, conflict of interest codes or standards of professional groups would prohibit such representation; but should they not, the faculty member will be deemed to accept the University’s decision whether or not to terminate the employment relationship, which decision will not bar the University from raising any objections or claims of privilege.

(iii) A faculty member cannot participate in reviewing for the University a response to an R.F.P. from an Organization with which the faculty member consults or has consulted in the prior 18 months. This prohibition extends to the faculty member’s intervening on behalf of the Organization once the procurement procedure has begun without having disclosed in writing to the Vice President in whose name the R.F.P. is issued (the “Vice President”) the existence of the consulting arrangement.

Should the faculty member participate in preparing the Organization’s response to the University R.F.P., the faculty member must disclose the existence of the consulting arrangement to the Vice President before the response is submitted.

b. Other Activities

(i) Intellectual Property: A discrete policy on patents, copyrights and other rights in intellectual property will be separately considered.

(ii) Receiving Compensation from Students: No department or faculty member may without prior written approval of the Dean of his/her College, enter into an arrangement involving the sale of educational goods or services with an enrolled student that provides for payments to be made by or on behalf of the student to the department or employee. In the case of an approved agreement, payment belongs to the University and must be made to the Office of the Bursar except that payment for sale of goods shall be made to the University Bookstore.

With the prior written consent of the Dean of the College, adjunct faculty may be paid by students for tutoring in courses other than those he or she is assigned to teach or for providing individual instruction in fine arts or performing arts.

(iii) Textbooks: Faculty members should consult the Textbook Adoption policy adopted by the Academic Council on April 29, 1993 and other relevant guidance.

E. In General:

All business transactions that violate conflict of interest requirements are voidable at the option of the University. The initiative and responsibility for reporting known conflicts of interest rests upon the individual and failure to make timely reports of known conflicts shall be subject to disciplinary action. Failure to disclose a known conflict of interest may make the organization that is the subject of the conflict of interest ineligible to do business with the University.

Any Administrative Officer, Faculty or Staff making a disclosure of an actual or potential conflict of interest or seeking interpretation of University policy or legal requirements shall consult his or her superior for advice, after which the Office of the General Counsel shall be available to advise on matters of conflict of interest. Advice given an Administrative Officer, Faculty, or Staff concerning an interpretation of University policy to legal requirements shall be in writing and be made a matter of record. In any case of conflict of interest involving the General Counsel and his or her staff, the President may seek the advice of independent legal counsel.

Any administrative superior receiving a disclosure of conflict of interest shall notify the General Counsel, who shall report as soon as practical to the President whether the business transaction that is the subject of the conflict of interest should be voided. The President shall inform the Board of Trustees of any potential or actual conflict of interest that makes a particular organization ineligible to do business with the University, and the organization involved shall be so advised.

No person has the authority to authorize exceptions to this Policy. Questions about or interpretations of this policy shall be directed to the General Counsel.

III. NEPOTISM IN UNIVERSITY EMPLOYMENT AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

A. In General:

The decisions on which employment status and compensation decisions (like hiring, promotion, transfer and termination) and academic evaluations or benefits (like grading, assignments, or internships) are based are often made in a comparative or a competitive context. Whether or not the decision is made in such a context, it is University policy that it be made on individual merit. Nepotism is favoritism in according employment benefits toward family members or to persons with whom a familial relationship exists. Nepotism creates the actuality or appearance of favoritism that is inconsistent with the standard of objectivity and integrity the University seeks to maintain. Violation of this Policy may open the University to charges of bias or discrimination.

For purposes of this section of the Policy, each part of the University is considered either an administrative department or an academic department. For purposes of deciding whether the Policy applies, the campus location of an employee is irrelevant; so, for example, an employee located in a Library at the Metropolitan Campus or an assistant professor in the Psychology Department in Becton College will be considered to be an employee should one of his or her relatives (as defined) apply for a position in the Friendship Library or in the Psychology Department/University College, respectively.

This section of the Policy shall apply to full-time and part-time employees but shall not apply to relatives of employees applying for summer or vacation period employment, except in cases in which the applicant would be working under the direct supervision of a relative (as defined).

B. Definitions:

A “relative” shall mean the employee’s spouse; the employee’s parent, sibling, descendant, nephew and niece, and those of the spouse and the spouses of the foregoing; and the employee’s and the spouse’s ward or other person over whom the employee has legal authority.

An “employee,” for purposes of this Policy, means an active full-time or part-time employee (which includes an adjunct faculty member) or a consultant.

C. University Employment:

Applicants will not be hired and employees will not be promoted or transferred: (1) into the same department, administrative or academic, in which a relative is already employed or (2) into a position in which the direct supervisor of that department is a relative. Also, employment will not be offered anywhere in the University to relatives of University Trustees or officers, for employment in a position that handles confidential medical information about University employees.

D. Educational Program:

No relative of a University employee shall be permitted to enroll in a class in which that employee is the assigned teacher, nor shall an employee carry out any responsibilities that will allow the employee to confer an academic benefit on a relative. An academic benefit for the purpose of this Policy includes, but is not limited to, awarding a grade, making an evaluation, waiving an academic requirement, making a selection for an internship or award, sitting on a review panel, writing a letter of recommendation. A University employee shall not intervene with a member of the faculty or an academic administrator on behalf of the particular interests of a relative.

E. Interpretations and Exceptions:

An exception to the provisions of {C} (above) can be made on written application by the Executive Vice President. An exception to {D} (above) can be made on written application by the Campus Provosts. Interpretations of this policy will be made by the General Counsel.

* Should the Conflict of Interest be discovered after the beginning of the class, the faculty member shall immediately consult with Dean on making arrangements for the evaluation of the student’s academic work.

====================================================

ATTACHMENT A - ETHICS AND CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY

The necessary trust supporting the relationship between the Board and its University constituencies depends on the belief put into practice, that the Board acts in the interest of the University. This trust will be undermined by a perceived lack of ethical conduct. Of course, the Board holds itself to the same standard to which it holds the staff that it will not authorize or countenance any action that is unlawful, that contractual agreements will be upheld, and that its decisions meet a "Prudent Person" test. These standards together with observing moral obligations describe ethical behavior to which the Board hereby commits itself.

One specific way in which the Board's commitment to ethical conduct can be compromised is for a member of the Board, acting in his or her capacity as Trustee, to allow his or her personal interests (or those of other organizations on the behalf of which the Trustee acts) to supersede the interest of the University. In particular, a Trustee cannot shape a University decision that will inure to the pecuniary advantage of any other organization with which he or she is associated. To prevent the reality or the appearance of a conflict of interest occuring, Trustees will file with the Secretary of the University annually (or upon a change in personal situation) a statement that will identify areas of potential conflict of interest so further enquiry can be made to obtain necessary disclosure. Appropriate steps should be taken to assure the Trustee is removed from the decision-making process that presents a conflict of interest.

	Conflict of Interest
AT A GLANCE:	The University is committed to fostering high ethical standards of performance in the operation of the University and its educational program by assuring that actual or potential conflicts of interest, or the appearance of conflicts of interest are avoided.
	This Policy supports the statement of the Board of Trustees on Ethics and Conflict of Interests that a perceived lack of ethical conduct will undermine the high level of integrity that University constituencies should expect in University decisions and operations. The University is committed to fostering high ethical standards of performance in the operation of the University and its educational program by assuring that actual or potential conflicts of interest, or the appearance of conflicts of interest, are avoided. It is expected that each University employee will maintain a commitment to honesty and integrity, which would be violated if the employee seeks to achieve personal or economic advantage in derogation from the employee’s exercise of sound independent judgment or the interests of the University. I. PURPOSE This Policy gives direction on what actions by employees are to be avoided and what steps employees should take to avoid actual or perceived conflicts of interest. It has two subject areas: (1) Avoiding conflicts of interest in decisions involving University assets and operations and assuring that business transactions with organizations outside the University do not serve the personal interest of University employees over the best interest of the University. (2) Avoiding the actuality or appearance of nepotism. Effective implementation of this Policy will uphold the fairness and integrity of the University’s employment and personnel systems and of its academic evaluations. II. CONFLICT OF INTERESTS IN UNIVERSITY BUSINESS OPERATIONS A. Definitions: For the purpose of this section of the Policy, the following terms shall be defined as indicated: "Administrative Officer" -- means employees of the University with duties and responsibilities directly related to the operations of the University, including those in a position to affect decisions as to the purchase or disposal of property or services, settlement of claims or other business obligations. The definition of Administrative Officer includes, but is not limited to, those in the following positions: The President Any Vice President, Associate Vice President, Assistant Vice President The General Counsel The Treasurer and the Controller The Campus Provosts Any Director or Dean reporting directly to a Vice President or Provost Executive Assistants to the PresidentThe University Director of Purchasing and his/her subordinates The Assistant to the Vice President for Administration and his/her subordinates The Director of Academic Computing *"Business Transaction"* -- any sale, purchase, contract, lease, license, settlement, award of aid, loan, or agreement to which the University is a party or a beneficiary. A Business Transaction under a multi-year contract is considered terminated when the contract term is over. "Conflict of Interest" -- occurs when an employee or Trustee (together referred to as "person") is in a position to affect or to influence significantly the business transactions of the University with the Organization in which the person has an interest. A person is considered to have an interest in an Organization 1. in which that person and/or his/her immediate family own more than 5% of the equity, directly or beneficially. 2. that is a creditor of that person (except a home mortgage obtained on market terms from a bank or similar lending organization shall not be so considered); or that owes the person more than $500 (except that any kind of saving or checking account or generally available banking arrangement or a holding of less than 5% of any part of a publicly issued debt offering shall not be so considered). 3. that employs, has employed within the 24 months before a Business Transaction, or has an arrangement to employ, to retain as a consultant, to fund the research of, or to pay a commission or stipend to that person and/or his immediate family. 4. that has retained as a consultant or paid a commission or stipend to or is funding the research of that person or his immediate family. 5. that intends to provide or has provided the person or his or her immediate family with goods and services on other than market terms, gratuities or gifts of more than $200 in the previous 12 months (not including examination copies of text books or the value of any business meals). "Employee" -- includes any person placed on the payroll or retained as a consultant, whether or not an independent contractor. "Immediate Family" -- a person's spouse, parents and parents-in law, children, siblings and their spouses. "Organization" -- a trust or corporation (including any subsidiary or parent, or a corporation under common control of such corporation), joint venture, partnership, unincorporated association, or individual proprietorship. “Trustee” -- means a member of the University’s Board of Trustees. B. Board of Trustees: Trustees shall disclose any known conflict of interest and shall avoid participating in any decision or advocating any subject matter before the Board or with University personnel in which the Trustee or a member of his or her immediate family has a real or potential conflict of interest. When a Trustee learns that a business transaction presents a conflict of interest, he or she must make an immediate, full disclosure to the Chairman of the Board (or in the case of the Chairman, to a Vice Chairman) of his or her interest in the subject. The Trustee shall not participate in any discussion of or decision on the issue. Failure to make disclosure shall void any resulting agreement at the option of the University. Within the provisions of the prior paragraph, this policy shall not prohibit a Trustee, an organization that employs a Trustee, or an organization in which a Trustee has financial interest (1) from pursuing a University R.F.P. or contract to be awarded by competitive bidding or (2) from supplying services to the University as a public utility. The General Counsel of the University shall obtain a disclosure form from each Trustee prior to a Trustee's first attendance at a Board meeting and from all Board members at least every two years. C. Administrative Officers: Administrative Officers shall immediately disclose to their administrative superior any known conflict of interest and shall avoid participating in any decisions or deliberations related to a University Business Transaction in which a potential or actual conflict of interest exists. An administrative superior in a reporting line to the Executive Vice President shall report these disclosures to the Executive Vice President in a timely manner. The administrative superior of the President is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees. A potential conflict of interest includes the preparation or approval of a R.F.P. in cases in which an "Organization" (as defined above) is likely to respond. They shall also disclose any conflicts of interest related to any research in which they are involved. Any Administrative Officer who fails to disclose a conflict of interest shall be disciplined in line with the nature and the severity of infraction. When appropriate, discipline shall include restitution to the University of the benefit received or the value of any opportunity the University lost. Administrative Officers also have an obligation to disclose knowledge of another employee’s potential conflict of interest when they have reason to believe a conflict of interest may exist. D. Faculty and Staff: 1. In General Every member of the Faculty and Staff of the University shall immediately disclose to his or her administrative superior any businevss transactions which present an actual or potential conflict of interest. As applied to Faculty, failure to disclose will be considered "Adequate Cause" on which to take discipline under the Faculty Handbook, as a failure to observe professional standards. Faculty and Staff shall also disclose any conflict of interest related to any research in which they are involved. 2. Provisions of Particular Application to Faculty and other Department Members a. Consulting and Related Activities The ability of faculty members to engage in non-University Employment in the mode of outside consulting is set forth in the Faculty Handbook, which indicates that the primary professional responsibility of each faculty member is to the University. In explication of the definition of “Conflict of Interest,” outside consulting activities bear upon this Policy as follows: (i) A faculty member cannot have a consulting arrangement with an organization at the same time he or she is teaching a class containing a student who is involved in negotiating or evaluating the consulting arrangement.* The conflict of interest, in actuality or appearance, is similar to that discussed in that part of the Policy related to nepotism. As also provided in that section of this Policy, no University employee -- faculty or staff -- shall intervene with a faculty member or administrator on behalf of a student who is negotiating or evaluating a consulting arrangement with that University employee. Faculty members should be sensitive to the realities and appearances of a situation covered by this Policy and should not, for example, teach a class with a student described above in expectation of submitting a proposal for a consulting arrangement to the organization for which the student works in a capacity described in the foregoing paragraph. (ii) No full time faculty member may represent or advise a client in a matter adverse to the University or its direct interest, for example, as a lawyer or expert. The University’s direct interests include those of the subsidiary organizations it controls. Should a part-time faculty member undertake such representation or work, he/she must give the earliest possible notice to the University through the Campus Provost. In some situations, conflict of interest codes or standards of professional groups would prohibit such representation; but should they not, the faculty member will be deemed to accept the University’s decision whether or not to terminate the employment relationship, which decision will not bar the University from raising any objections or claims of privilege. (iii) A faculty member cannot participate in reviewing for the University a response to an R.F.P. from an Organization with which the faculty member consults or has consulted in the prior 18 months. This prohibition extends to the faculty member’s intervening on behalf of the Organization once the procurement procedure has begun without having disclosed in writing to the Vice President in whose name the R.F.P. is issued (the “Vice President”) the existence of the consulting arrangement. Should the faculty member participate in preparing the Organization’s response to the University R.F.P., the faculty member must disclose the existence of the consulting arrangement to the Vice President before the response is submitted. b. Other Activities (i) Intellectual Property: A discrete policy on patents, copyrights and other rights in intellectual property will be separately considered. (ii) Receiving Compensation from Students: No department or faculty member may without prior written approval of the Dean of his/her College, enter into an arrangement involving the sale of educational goods or services with an enrolled student that provides for payments to be made by or on behalf of the student to the department or employee. In the case of an approved agreement, payment belongs to the University and must be made to the Office of the Bursar except that payment for sale of goods shall be made to the University Bookstore. With the prior written consent of the Dean of the College, adjunct faculty may be paid by students for tutoring in courses other than those he or she is assigned to teach or for providing individual instruction in fine arts or performing arts. (iii) Textbooks: Faculty members should consult the Textbook Adoption policy adopted by the Academic Council on April 29, 1993 and other relevant guidance. E. In General: All business transactions that violate conflict of interest requirements are voidable at the option of the University. The initiative and responsibility for reporting known conflicts of interest rests upon the individual and failure to make timely reports of known conflicts shall be subject to disciplinary action. Failure to disclose a known conflict of interest may make the organization that is the subject of the conflict of interest ineligible to do business with the University. Any Administrative Officer, Faculty or Staff making a disclosure of an actual or potential conflict of interest or seeking interpretation of University policy or legal requirements shall consult his or her superior for advice, after which the Office of the General Counsel shall be available to advise on matters of conflict of interest. Advice given an Administrative Officer, Faculty, or Staff concerning an interpretation of University policy to legal requirements shall be in writing and be made a matter of record. In any case of conflict of interest involving the General Counsel and his or her staff, the President may seek the advice of independent legal counsel. Any administrative superior receiving a disclosure of conflict of interest shall notify the General Counsel, who shall report as soon as practical to the President whether the business transaction that is the subject of the conflict of interest should be voided. The President shall inform the Board of Trustees of any potential or actual conflict of interest that makes a particular organization ineligible to do business with the University, and the organization involved shall be so advised. No person has the authority to authorize exceptions to this Policy. Questions about or interpretations of this policy shall be directed to the General Counsel. III. NEPOTISM IN UNIVERSITY EMPLOYMENT AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM A. In General: The decisions on which employment status and compensation decisions (like hiring, promotion, transfer and termination) and academic evaluations or benefits (like grading, assignments, or internships) are based are often made in a comparative or a competitive context. Whether or not the decision is made in such a context, it is University policy that it be made on individual merit. Nepotism is favoritism in according employment benefits toward family members or to persons with whom a familial relationship exists. Nepotism creates the actuality or appearance of favoritism that is inconsistent with the standard of objectivity and integrity the University seeks to maintain. Violation of this Policy may open the University to charges of bias or discrimination. For purposes of this section of the Policy, each part of the University is considered either an administrative department or an academic department. For purposes of deciding whether the Policy applies, the campus location of an employee is irrelevant; so, for example, an employee located in a Library at the Metropolitan Campus or an assistant professor in the Psychology Department in Becton College will be considered to be an employee should one of his or her relatives (as defined) apply for a position in the Friendship Library or in the Psychology Department/University College, respectively. This section of the Policy shall apply to full-time and part-time employees but shall not apply to relatives of employees applying for summer or vacation period employment, except in cases in which the applicant would be working under the direct supervision of a relative (as defined). B. Definitions: A *“relative”* shall mean the employee’s spouse; the employee’s parent, sibling, descendant, nephew and niece, and those of the spouse and the spouses of the foregoing; and the employee’s and the spouse’s ward or other person over whom the employee has legal authority. An *“employee,”* for purposes of this Policy, means an active full-time or part-time employee (which includes an adjunct faculty member) or a consultant. C. University Employment: Applicants will not be hired and employees will not be promoted or transferred: (1) into the same department, administrative or academic, in which a relative is already employed or (2) into a position in which the direct supervisor of that department is a relative. Also, employment will not be offered anywhere in the University to relatives of University Trustees or officers, for employment in a position that handles confidential medical information about University employees. D. Educational Program: No relative of a University employee shall be permitted to enroll in a class in which that employee is the assigned teacher, nor shall an employee carry out any responsibilities that will allow the employee to confer an academic benefit on a relative. An academic benefit for the purpose of this Policy includes, but is not limited to, awarding a grade, making an evaluation, waiving an academic requirement, making a selection for an internship or award, sitting on a review panel, writing a letter of recommendation. A University employee shall not intervene with a member of the faculty or an academic administrator on behalf of the particular interests of a relative. E. Interpretations and Exceptions: An exception to the provisions of {C} (above) can be made on written application by the Executive Vice President. An exception to {D} (above) can be made on written application by the Campus Provosts. Interpretations of this policy will be made by the General Counsel. * Should the Conflict of Interest be discovered after the beginning of the class, the faculty member shall immediately consult with Dean on making arrangements for the evaluation of the student’s academic work. ==================================================== ATTACHMENT A - ETHICS AND CONFLICT OF INTEREST POLICY The necessary trust supporting the relationship between the Board and its University constituencies depends on the belief put into practice, that the Board acts in the interest of the University. This trust will be undermined by a perceived lack of ethical conduct. Of course, the Board holds itself to the same standard to which it holds the staff that it will not authorize or countenance any action that is unlawful, that contractual agreements will be upheld, and that its decisions meet a "Prudent Person" test. These standards together with observing moral obligations describe ethical behavior to which the Board hereby commits itself. One specific way in which the Board's commitment to ethical conduct can be compromised is for a member of the Board, acting in his or her capacity as Trustee, to allow his or her personal interests (or those of other organizations on the behalf of which the Trustee acts) to supersede the interest of the University. In particular, a Trustee cannot shape a University decision that will inure to the pecuniary advantage of any other organization with which he or she is associated. To prevent the reality or the appearance of a conflict of interest occuring, Trustees will file with the Secretary of the University annually (or upon a change in personal situation) a statement that will identify areas of potential conflict of interest so further enquiry can be made to obtain necessary disclosure. Appropriate steps should be taken to assure the Trustee is removed from the decision-making process that presents a conflict of interest.