Spousal Hires

Among the many things that bug me in the academia, nepotism is one of the most upsetting. Spousal hiring (which means that somebody gets an academic position for being somebody's spouse) is particularly distressing.

The candidate selection process in the academia is very arduous. Often, however, candidates don't know that they are invited to campus interviews purely for show. The decision to give the job to a spouse has been made already and - after putting the candidates through several circles of hell - they are just simply rejected. The candidates think that something is wrong with their job talk or maybe that they are not good enough and don't know that the only reason for the rejection is that the job was needed for someone else. Often, for someone who has few (if any) qualifications for the position.

The saddest part is that the students (who pay a lot of money for their education) have no idea about who is teaching them. I've often had students come up to me saying: "You told us this and that while Professor X is teaching us otherwise." And I can't even tell them that Professor X is not really a professor and is simply not qualified to teach this subject.

As an academic, I can understand as well as the next person the desire to have your partner close to you. I don't think, however, that either my colleagues or my students should pay the price for my personal happiness.
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