By Craig Anderson
Arizona Daily Wildcat
April 7, 1998

UA needs to hire more minorities

Because the University of Arizona violated federal equal employment opportunity laws, those who hire university employees will have to recruit more minorities and keep better records, a UA affirmative action official told the Faculty Senate last night.

Janie Nuñez, the UA associate vice president for affirmative action, said the university has finalized a new affirmative action policy to redress four UA federal employment regulation violations cited in a June 1997 U.S. Department of Labor report.

The report, based on an Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs' review of the UA's hiring practices during the 1993 academic year, stated that the UA did not hire enough women, minorities, veterans and disabled persons for positions that had a high number of applicants from those groups.

It also stated that the UA did not keep adequate records when hiring and promoting personnel and did not meet the federal standard for hiring Vietnam veterans, disabled veterans and other disabled individuals.

After the report was issued, former UA President Manuel Pacheco signed an agreement with the Labor Department promising to take steps toward correcting the violations.

During the Senate report, Nuñez said UA staff recruiters will have to keep detailed records of whether applicants meet the criteria for protected status under affirmative action laws.

Nuñez said interviewers cannot ask applicants which ethnic group they belong to, and they must use their own judgment to determine ethnicity.

She also advised senators that it is wrong to trick applicants into giving away their ethnic background.

"You can't ask ,'Do you like tacos or do you prefer egg rolls?'" Nuñez said.

She said the UA will keep quarterly records of applicants and new hires to see if it is hiring an adequate percentage of protected-status personnel.