Summary Statement on Equal Opportunity in Hiring Practices at Minnesota State Colleges and Universities
Minnesota State Colleges and Universities utilize hiring practices designed to promote equal opportunity for all qualified candidates. It is important to recognize that these practices are not used to lower essential hiring qualifications or mandate hiring quotas based on gender or race or other protected class status. Minnesota State's hiring practices are, instead, designed to afford all qualified applicants an equal chance to be evaluated on his or her merits without discrimination based on membership in a protected class.
Through its hiring process, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities strives to increase opportunity by broadening the diversity of the applicant pool and evaluating all qualified candidates using the same legitimate work-related criteria. These hiring practices generally include:
- Screening position descriptions and selection criteria to ensure the use of appropriate (merit-based) requirements;
- Including a thoughtful review of essential qualifications and preferred criteria;
- Comprehensive and inclusive advertising and recruiting efforts;
- Special or targeted recruiting in addition to traditional methods;
- Gender-neutral and culturally bias-free criteria in evaluating candidates.
Human Resources will assist search committees in implementing the above practices, including, but not limited to, designing appropriate interview questions for all candidates.
