Procedure: Professional Conduct Review for New Faculty

Yale University is committed to cultivating a safe, respectful, and inclusive environment where all students, faculty, and staff can pursue their professional aspirations. Accordingly, the university seeks to welcome new faculty to our community who embrace the university’s values of integrity, honesty, and ethical conduct.   

Yale’s Professional Conduct Review for New Faculty Policy is intended to allow for the gathering of relevant information about prospective faculty. 

The following procedure provides candidates and departments with details on how this policy is implemented.

Implementation Timeline 

The new policy and procedures are effective July 1, 2025 for all new external faculty hires, in the following situations:

a.   when a conditional offer (letter dated on or after July 1, 2025) is extended to an external candidate for a non-ladder faculty position, or 

b.   when a search is created in Interfolio on or after July 1, 2025 for a ladder faculty position at Yale. 

Updates to Wording, Interfolio Faculty Searches 

For all new faculty searches that are created in Interfolio on or after July 1, 2025, the following specific language is required to be added to both the job advertisement and Interfolio record: 

“The final candidate, upon acceptance of a contingent offer of employment/faculty appointment, may be required to disclose whether they are, or have been, the subject of any disciplinary proceeding (investigation, hearing, etc.) at previous institutions or employers, and may also be subject to a background screening. Candidates who materially misrepresent information on their resume or other application materials are ineligible for hire/appointment. Final candidates may also be required to sign a release to allow Yale to solicit information regarding any substantiated conduct violations from current and/or past employers.” 

Updates to Wording, Faculty Offer Letters 

In offer letters for all faculty ranks dated on or after July 1, 2025, the following specific language is required to be added to the conditional offer letter:

“This offer is contingent upon satisfactory completion of a professional conduct assessment for which the required documentation is enclosed.”

Professional Conduct Review Procedure

1. Conditional Offer Letter and Questionnaire

When a conditional offer is extended to an external candidate for a faculty position at any rank, the candidate will be asked to accept the terms of the letter, including the professional conduct review requirements. An attachment to the offer letter will provide the candidate with a link to the Professional Conduct Questionnaire that will require the candidate answer the following questions:  

1. Have any current or former employers and/or educational institutions determined that you have violated their policies regarding any form of harassment or discrimination1, retaliation, sexual misconduct, bullying or intimidating/abusive behavior, unprofessional relationship, or misconduct related to scholarship, research, teaching, service, or clinical/patient care (collectively “Misconduct”)?  
2. Are you currently under investigation, or is there an investigation pending, by a current or former employer and/or educational institution in which it is alleged that you engaged in conduct which, if you were found responsible, would amount to a violation of the employer’s or educational institution’s policies concerning any of the above referenced Misconduct? 
3. Have you ever left your employment or academic position during the pendency of a complaint investigation which did not conclude due to your departure and in which it is alleged that you engaged in conduct which, if you were found responsible, would amount to a violation of the employer’s or educational institution’s policies concerning any of the above referenced Misconduct? 

• If any of these questions are answered in the affirmative, the candidate has the opportunity in the questionnaire to provide further elaboration and upload any relevant supplemental documentation. 

• Once the candidate submits their answers to the Professional Conduct Questionnaire, the cognizant Dean’s Office or Office of Faculty Administrative Services (OFAS) will receive confirmation of submission. 

2. Questionnaire Response Workflow 

Tenured and Continuing Appointments: 

• For all tenured and continuing appointments, regardless of the candidate’s responses on the questionnaire, the candidate will be required to upload a signed Authorization to Release Information form, and their recent CV into the conduct review questionnaire. The Provost’s Office will then reach out to the candidate’s current and former employers and/or educational institutions to ask for more information regarding any substantiated violations of their institutions’ policies governing faculty conduct pertaining to misconduct. The Provost’s Office will then contact the cognizant Dean’s Office and/or a representative from OFAS to confer and share additional information.

• If the candidate answers “No” to all three questions and there are no substantiated violations of misconduct reported by the candidate’s current or past employers and/or educational institutions, either a representative of the Dean’s Office or OFAS will notify the hiring department that the Professional Conduct Review requirement has been successfully fulfilled, and the department can immediately continue with the new hire onboarding processes. Hiring departments should save this confirmation notification, which may be required for submission with other onboarding processes, including but not limited to the hire transaction in Workday, as well as international VISA processing. 

• If the candidate answers any of the questions in the survey as “Yes” or if any current or previous employer or educational institution provides information about substantiated violations of Misconduct, the candidate’s responses and any supplemental documentation will be received by the cognizant Dean’s Office or OFAS, as well as the Provost’s Office. The Provost’s Office will then reach out to the cognizant Dean’s Office and/or representative from OFAS to confer for further review. 

Term Appointments: 

• If the candidate answers “No” to all three questions, either a representative of the Dean’s Office or OFAS will notify the hiring department that the Professional Conduct Review requirement has been successfully fulfilled, and the department can immediately continue with the new hire onboarding processes. A copy of the candidate’s responses to the questionnaire will be sent to the hiring department, and will be saved to the faculty member’s personnel file.  Hiring departments should save this confirmation notification, which may be required for submission with other onboarding processes, including but not limited to the hire transaction in Workday, as well as international VISA processing. 

• If the candidate answers any of the questions in the survey as “Yes,” the candidate’s responses and any additional documentation they upload to the questionnaire will be received by the cognizant Dean’s Office or OFAS, as well as the Provost’s Office. The Provost’s Office will determine if additional information is needed, and the may then contact the candidate to have them provide their CV as well as a signed Authorization to Release Form authorizing the Provost’s Office to contact the candidate’s current and former employers and/or educational institutions to gather more information. The Provost’s Office will then reach out to the cognizant Dean’s Office and/or representative from OFAS to confer for further review, and the Provost’s Office may contact the candidate’s current or former employers to gather more information.  

3. Professional Conduct Review Committee 

Any information received regarding substantiated instances of misconduct will be assessed by a committee comprised of the chair of the hiring department and/or the dean of the school or the dean’s designee, and representatives from the Office of the Provost, Risk Management, and the Office of the General Counsel. After reviewing the response(s) from the academic institution(s) and any additional related information, the committee will determine whether the candidate remains eligible to be hired into the position.  

• If the committee concludes that the candidate’s conduct review meets Yale policy, the Dean’s Office or representative from OFAS will contact the hiring department to confirm that the department can continue with the new hire onboarding processes.  

• If the committee concludes that the candidate’s conduct review does not meet Yale policy, one of the committee members will notify the candidate of the decision, as well as notify the hiring department that they may not continue with the new hire.  

A. All new external faculty hires, including YNHH employees (i.e., Hospital Residents or YNHH Clinical Fellows) are required to complete the PCR for all ladder, non-ladder, research, visiting, and adjunct faculty positions. Please see the chart below to determine which categories of faculty require a Conduct Review Inquiry, in addition to the submission of the Conduct Review Questionnaire. 

Q. Are non-faculty employees who will be granted a secondary faculty appointment subject to the PCR process? 

A. No – the PCR process is for new faculty hires with primary or fully joint appointments. Those with only secondary appointments at a faculty rank are not subject to the PCR. Workers hired into staff positions complete a separate background check prior to their hire. 

Q. Who should the incoming faculty member contact if they have questions about PCR process? 

A. For candidates in the School of Medicine, please ask them to contact faculty.affairs@yale.edu with their questions regarding the PCR process. For non-YSM candidates, please ask them to contact faculty.admin@yale.edu with questions regarding this process. 

Q. What are the department administrator’s responsibilities regarding the PCR? 

A. After the relevant Dean’s Office/YSM Department Chair’s Office sends an offer letter including the PCR Instructions to the new faculty candidate, the department staff should wait to process the new hire in Workday until receiving an email notification confirming that the PCR is complete and meets Yale policy. Department staff will then include that notification within the supporting documentation packet to submit for approval when processing the appointment in Workday. Department staff should also save the notification for their records and submit it to the Office of International Students & Scholars (OISS) for any related visa processing for the incoming faculty. Department staff are also encouraged to reach out to the relevant central office in the FAS, OFAS, or School of Medicine to forward any inquiries they may receive from the faculty candidate about the PCR process, so the central offices can advise. 

Q. Will hiring departments have visibility into which faculty candidates have completed the Conduct Review Questionnaire (CRQ) so that hiring departments can follow up with candidates to complete it, if needed?  

A. To protect the privacy of our candidates, departments will not directly receive answers to the CRQ; however, the candidate will automatically receive a copy of their responses for their records. For term appointments, departments will be promptly notified by their cognizant Dean, OAPD, or OFAS once the candidate has completed the CRQ if the candidate answers “no” to all three questions. If the candidate responds affirmatively to any of the 3 questions, the Dean’s Office, OAPD, or OFAS and the Provost’s Office will be automatically notified so that immediate action can be taken by those offices. All tenured or continuing appointments, regardless of their answers to the CRQ, will also go through the Conduct Review Inquiry process. Therefore, those reviews will take a little more time (approximately 1-2 weeks) to complete before a written notification is sent to the hiring unit from the Dean’s Office, OAPD, or OFAS. Please contact faculty.admin@yale.edu for professional schools, fas.dean@yale.edu for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and faculty.affairs@yale.edu for School of Medicine if you or the candidate has any questions about where the candidate is in the PCR process. 

Q. Is there a deadline or suggested timeline for a new faculty candidate to complete the CRQ? 

A. Depending on each hiring unit’s specifications, some offer letters ask for a response within 5 business days, others give the candidate weeks to sign their offer letter and complete the PCR process. Each scenario is different so this timeline can be flexible; however, the PCR process must be completed prior to the new hire being entered in Workday, so please plan accordingly.  

Q. If the faculty candidate is subject to the Professional Conduct Review Inquiry process, how long will that supplemental process take to be completed?  

A. Once the faculty candidate submits the request, along with the Authorization to Release Information Form, the Provost’s Office will contact the candidate’s current and former employers and/or educational institutions. The employers and/or academic institutions should be able to send to Yale the information on any substantiated violations of misconduct within 1-2 weeks. If sufficient information is not received within 3-4 weeks, the Professional Conduct Review Committee will meet to decide on next steps. 

 Q. If an individual with a current Postgraduate, Postdoctoral, or Clinical Associate appointment at Yale transitions to a faculty position are they subject to the PCR? 

A. If the Yale employee has an employment gap between their current academic appointment and the new faculty rank of 6 months or less, then they are not subject to the PCR. If there is more than a 6-month employment gap, they are subject to the PCR process. 

Q. Our department is hiring a new faculty member who will be paid 100% by another institution (e.g. a VA-paid affiliation or a visiting faculty member paid directly by their home institution). Is the PCR process required for this person? 

A. Yes – the PCR is required for all new external faculty hires, regardless of funding source. 

Q. If we anticipate that our final candidate may decline our offer, can we initiate a PCR for our second final candidate to expedite the process? 

A. The PCR can only be initiated once a conditional offer letter is extended and accepted by the faculty candidate. In the offer letter, the faculty candidate will be asked to accept the terms of the letter, including the professional conduct review requirements, and the attachment to the offer letter will provide the candidate with a link to the Conduct Review Questionnaire. If a candidate declines the offer, the typical faculty recruitment process should be followed, including providing the subsequent candidate with an offer letter containing the required PCR language and attachment.  

Q. When does an Authorization to Release Form need to be completed and how does the faculty candidate get access to that form? 

A.  If the candidate is being hired into a tenured or continuing appointment, whether the candidate answered “Yes” or “No” to the three questions within the CRQ, the survey will prompt the faculty candidate to upload a copy of their CV and will also include a link to the Authorization to Release Form with instructions for the candidate to complete the form and upload it directly into the CRQ.  

If a faculty candidate being hired into a term appointment responds “Yes” to any of the three questions within the CRQ, the candidate’s responses will be received by the cognizant Dean’s Office or OFAS, as well as the Provost’s Office. The Provost’s Office will determine if additional information is needed, and may then reach out directly to the candidate to ask them to complete and return an Authorization to Release Form, along with a copy of their most recent CV.  

Q. If a candidate responds “Yes” to a question on the CRQ, will that automatically disqualify the individual from being hired at Yale? 

A. No - Affirmative responses to the CRQ questions do not necessarily disqualify the candidate from consideration for hire/appointment. If the candidate answers any of the questions in the survey as “Yes” or if any current or previous employer or educational institution provides information about substantiated violations of Misconduct, the candidate’s responses and any supplemental documentation will be received by the cognizant Dean’s Office or OFAS, as well as the Provost’s Office. The Provost’s Office, Risk Management, Office of General Counsel, and the cognizant Dean’s Office and/or representative from OFAS will carefully consider the information provided. 

Q. We are appointing a new faculty member who will have clinical responsibilities. In addition to the credentialing process through Yale Medicine and the Yale New Haven Health System, will this candidate also be required to complete the PCR process? 

A. All new external faculty hires must complete the PCR, regardless of any additional requirements for them to be clinically credentialed.  

Q. If a department is hiring a faculty candidate who was previously employed in another department within Yale, how can the new hiring department verify if the PCR process is required to be completed? 

A. Please write to faculty.admin@yale.edu for professional schools, fas.dean@yale.edu for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and faculty.affairs@yale.edu for School of Medicine to obtain information on specific dates of a candidate’s prior appointments in different departments within Yale.