Best Practices For Compliance with the West Virginia Ethics Commission Legislative Rules on Nepotism
The Eberly College of Arts and Sciences adheres to the West Virginia Governmental Ethics Act and the legislative rules promulgated thereunder by the West Virginia Ethics Commission.
According to the Commission’s published rules in Title 158, Series 6, “Nepotism" means favoritism shown or patronage granted in employment or working conditions by a public official or public employee to relatives or persons with whom the public official or public employee resides.” Further, the Commission’s pertinent guidance on this rule states:
A public official or public employee may not show favoritism or grant patronage in the employment or working conditions of his or her relative or a person with whom he or she resides. “Public official” and “public employee” as used to this section means all elected and appointed public officials and public employees, whether full- or part-time, in state, county, municipal governments and their respective boards, agencies, departments and commissions and in any other regional or local governmental agency, including county school boards.
The Ethics Act prohibits public officials and public employees from knowingly and intentionally using their office or the prestige of their office for their own private gain or the private gain of another person. Nepotism is one form of the use of office for private gain because if public officials or employees use their positions to give an unfair advantage to relatives or persons with whom the public official or employee resides, the primary benefit to such action is to the public official or employee or another person rather than to the public.
"Relative" means spouse, mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter, grandmother, grandfather, grandchild, mother-in-law, father-in-law, sister-in-law, brother-in-law, son-in-law or daughter-in-law.
A public agency, including its officials and employees, must administer the employment and working conditions of a relative of a public employee or a public official or a person with whom the public official or employee resides in an impartial manner. To the extent possible, a public official or public employee may not participate in decisions affecting the employment and working conditions of his or her relative or a person with whom he or she resides. If he or she is one of several people with the authority to make these decisions, others with authority shall make the decisions.
A public official or public employee may not directly supervise a relative or a person with whom he or she resides. This prohibition includes reviewing, auditing or evaluating work or taking part in discussions or making recommendations concerning employment, assignments, compensation, bonuses, benefits, discipline or related matters. This prohibition does not extend to matters affecting a class of five or more similarly situated employees.
If a public official or public employee must participate in decisions affecting the employment, working conditions or supervision of the public official or public employee’s relative or a person with whom the public official or public employee resides, then:
- An independent third party shall be involved in the process. A public official or public employee may not use a subordinate for the independent third party unless it is an elected public official who may not lawfully delegate the powers of his or her office, e.g,, county assessor or county clerk, and
- The public official or employee shall exercise his or her best objective judgment in making the decision, and be prepared to justify his or her decision.
A public official may not vote on matters affecting the employment or working conditions of a relative unless the relative is a member of a class of persons affected. A class shall consist of not fewer than five similarly situated persons. For a public official’s recusal to be effective, he or she must excuse him or herself from participating in the discussion and decision-making process by physically removing him or herself from the room during the period, fully disclosing his or her interests and recusing him or herself from voting on the issue and recording the recusal in the minutes.
Supervision and Alternate Supervisors
It is not uncommon in an academic unit such as a college, school, or department for relatives or residing partners to be employed within the same unit. Occasionally, relatives or residing partners can be in the same unit in which their relative or residing partner is the supervisor (e.g. Chair, Director).
Consistent with the above rule, Eberly supervisors may not directly supervise a relative or residing partner. When a situation arises where a supervisor is in the same unit as their relative or residing partner, this relationship must be reported to the Dean. The Dean or the Dean’s designee will appoint an alternate supervisor for the relative/residing partner. The alternate supervisor may not be from the same unit so as not to be under the supervision of the unit’s supervisor to avoid potential indirect interference. Subject to best practices for course assignments below, the alternate supervisor will assign and evaluate expected duties of the affected personnel in accordance with the academic unit’s stated policies and procedures, including workload policies and any other applicable guidelines, policies, handbooks, or rules.
Course Assignments for Full-Time Faculty
Teaching assignments are a significant part of a faculty member’s workload. Assignments must account for the number of courses taught, types of courses taught, and days/times when teaching will occur. Scheduling of courses takes place in advance of each regular semester, as well intersessions and summer semesters. Scheduling is a complex and difficult task. This task typically falls to the unit’s supervisor with assistance from programmatic coordinators. A faculty member’s teaching assignment is based on balancing a faculty member’s teaching requests, which are the basis of the process, with programmatic needs. Ultimately, the supervisor has the authority to make specific teaching assignments.
If a faculty member is a relative or residing partner of the unit supervisor, all teaching assignments must involve an independent third-party alternate supervisor. While the unit supervisor has the option to allow the alternate supervisor to fully manage the teaching assignment process, the unit supervisor may exercise their best objective judgment in drafting teaching assignments which the alternate supervisor must then review and approve. The former option precludes claims of nepotism. The latter option, while protecting the unit supervisor under the West Virginia Governmental Ethics Act, still requires them to be prepared to justify any teaching assignment decisions.
Course Assignments for Adjunct (Part-Time Per Course) Instructors
It is very common due to programmatic and student demands that we must hire adjuncts (part-time instructional employees) to offer courses. In the Eberly College each semester, as of 2026, well over 100 courses are offered that cannot be staffed by our full-time faculty or graduate teaching assistants. To help staff these courses, the college regularly hires adjuncts (part-time instructional employees) on a per course basis. These adjuncts apply to a general call for instruction and are selected based on having appropriate credentials and possessing specific expertise to teach.
It is the unit supervisor’s (e.g. Chair, Director) responsibility to determine whether additional courses need to be scheduled and whether they will need adjunct instruction. The determining factor for scheduling additional courses must be that the courses are needed based on programmatic requirements and student demand. All requests for unstaffed courses must be reviewed and approved by the Dean or the Dean’s designate. Prior to assigning courses to adjuncts, existing faculty must be offered the chance to request additional regular course assignments or overloads.
In the case where a potential adjunct is a relative or residing partner to the unit supervisor, hiring and assignment of unstaffed courses must involve an independent third-party alternate supervisor. While the unit supervisor has the option to allow the alternate supervisor to fully manage the assignment of approved unstaffed courses through existing faculty requests and overload assignments, the unit supervisor may exercise their best objective judgment regarding filling unstaffed courses through existing faculty requests and overloads, which the alternate supervisor must then review and approve. The former option precludes claims of nepotism. The latter option, while protecting the unit supervisor under the West Virginia Governmental Ethics Act, still requires them to be prepared to justify any teaching assignment decisions.
In the case where a potential adjunct is a relative or residing partner to the unit supervisor, hiring of adjuncts, assignment of courses thereto, and supervision of the relative or residing partner must always be managed by the alternate supervisor.