Should schools make an effort to hire (or place) the spouse of an attractive faculty candidate. Even if it's good for the school, is it good for society? This is a complicated subject getting attention from Jeff Harrison – who calls it the New Cronyism – and Howard Wasserman, who takes a more fine grained view. The comments to Howard's post, over at Prawfs, are worth reading as well. Among the issues in play: do efforts to hire a spouse undermine meritocracy, benefit the already-rich, or have positive or negative effects on diversity.
The Current Debate: Dual Spouse Hiring
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At a minimum, I'd like to see schools that hire spouses pay attention to their own nepotism rules.
Any lawyer ought, in my view, to understand that s/he should not vote on the appointment of her/his spouse. And yet at the school where I now teach, we have couples on the faculty where the first-hired voted on the second-hired. Am I old-fashioned for thinking that's a bad, bad thing?