Nepotism in Employment

University administrators, faculty and staff shall not participate in institutional decisions involving personnel actions, including appointments/hiring, termination/layoffs, promotions/demotions, tenure decisions, salary setting, performance appraisals or grievance and disciplinary procedures for immediate family membersImmediate family membersImmediate family is a spouse, domestic partners, civil union partner or dependent child.​. (See Section III for definition.)

The principle of anti-nepotism shall not be used as a criterion against appointment or employment at the University of Colorado.

The thrust of this policy is that while there is no prohibition against immediate family membersImmediate family membersImmediate family is a spouse, domestic partners, civil union partner or dependent child.​ working in the same department or unit, an employeeEmployeesAn individual who currently holds a University employment appointment, whether full-time, part-time, temporary, seasonal or hourly. may not appoint, nor participate in the decision-making process to appoint an immediate family member to a position within the university. The decision on the appointment must be made by someone other than the immediate family member. Once such an appointment has been made, subsequent decisions on the salary, promotion, retention, leaves of absences, awards and all perquisites and benefits for the employee must be made by someone other than the immediate family member, even though the immediate family member may be the supervisor to whom the employee reports. The immediate family member in the supervisory position shall recuse themselves from all personnel actions involving the other immediate family member.

This administrative policy statement requires that procedures be developed for identifying and reporting potential conflicts of interest in employment where a supervisory relationship exists between immediate family members. Each campus is responsible for developing procedures for reporting supervisory relationships between immediate family members and taking actions to ensure that the immediate family member in the supervisory position is not involved in any personnel actions, as described above, involving the subordinate immediate family member.

Italicized terms used in this Administrative Policy Statement (APS) are defined in the APS Glossary of Terms or are defined in this section.

For purposes of this policy, immediate family members include spousesSpouseThe spouse of an employee pursuant to a marriage recognized by the laws of the State of Colorado, if such spouse is not divorced or legally separated from the employee., civil union partnersCivil union partnerThe civil union partner of an employee in a civil union that satisfies the requirements of the Colorado Civil Union Act, C.R.S. § 14-15-101, et seq., if the employee and civil union partner have not dissolved the partnership and are not legally separated. (see history), domestic partners, children, parents, grandparents, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles, aunts, first cousins, mothers-in-law, fathers-in-law, sisters-in-law, brothers-in-law, sons-in-law, and daughters-in-law, and any other person who is a member of the employee's household.

Civil Union Partner - The civil union partner of an employeeEmployeesAn individual who currently holds a University employment appointment, whether full-time, part-time, temporary, seasonal or hourly. in a civil union that satisfies the requirements of the Colorado Civil Union Act, C.R.S. § 14-15-101, et seq., if the employee and civil union partner have not dissolved the partnership and are not legally separated.

APS 5015 - Conflict of Interest in Cases of Amorous Relationships provides that an amorous relationship between an employee and a student or between two employees constitutes a conflict of interest when one of the individuals has direct evaluative authority over the other and requires that the direct evaluative authority must be eliminated.

• Adopted: December 11, 1979, "Procedures for Implementing Regent Policies on Conflict of Interest and Nepotism".
• Revised: July 1, 2009 - this policy replaces the Administrative Policy Statement, Nepotism in Employment; July 1, 2013; a definitional update was made to immediate family members in May 2014 to reflect new state law regarding Civil Unions; June 18, 2020, regent policy 10.J was rescinded because the contents are already contained in this APS.
• Last Reviewed:October 2, 2023.