COMMITMENT TO EQUALITY
OF EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
– A STATEMENT OF POLICY –

Indiana University School of Law - Indianapolis is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all students, job applicants and employees. Moreover, the Law School is committed to helping legal employers take positive steps to recruit, interview, and hire law students and graduates in a lawful and effective manner.

The Indiana University School of Law - Indianapolis does not condone discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender, national origin, sexual orientations, religion, age, familial status or disability.

Generally, the quality of recruitment at the Law School has been excellent. However, on occasion, interviewers have asked questions which are perceived to be discriminatory. The Law School believes that it may be helpful to provide some guidelines regarding interview questions.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, or national origin. Placement offices are considered employment agencies and are governed by Title VII.

The most important single guideline for equal employment interviewing is to ask job-related questions. Interviewers should not ask special questions of women or minorities which are not asked of white males. For example, it is inappropriate to ask questions about marital status and number of children of women and not of men. Questions about family planning, child care arrangements, or a spouse's or parent's feelings about the applicant's legal career tend to be used in a negative way with female applicants. Such lines of questioning may leave an employer open to charges of discriminatory hiring practices. And, these questions leave the applicant, male or female, with an unfavorable impression of the employer.

Knowledge of the appropriateness of questions is vital to successful interviewing. Useful recruitment resources include the National Association for Law Placement's Lawful and Effective Interviewing Practices (1984) and Managing the Recruitment Process (1982) by Christine White and Abbie Willard Thorner.