School of Business Administration
University of South Carolina Aiken¹
Aiken, South Carolina
Department of Management and Marketing
College of Business
Louisiana State University, Shreveport²
Shreveport, Louisiana
Title
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in University Hiring Practices
Synopsis
Consistently, universities and other employers include a hiring practices statement on job postings. In some cases, the statement may be as short as a single sentence explaining that the university is an equal-opportunity employer (an EEOC statement). However, in many cases, the job posting contains a detailed description of the organization’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI statement). The purpose of this paper is to explore the content in job posting statements with legal obligations and with employer practices in higher education. This study confirms that while some universities have extensive DEI statements in their position descriptions, it was common for universities to only track a small subset of applicant characteristics, most commonly race and sex. Additionally, it was common for universities to gather information regarding handicap status, but this information was often not used to determine the diversity of the applicant pool. Public policy and managerial implications are provided.