Employers

Throughout the year, we offer tabling as a way to reach our students as a recruiting tool for employers. This program is called Eagle Opportunities. If you are interested in tabling, contact email Student Experience Manager Emily Burke at eburke2@umw.edu

The following policy outlines the guidelines for employers wishing to host an information table for students at the University of Mary Washington in our campus hub, the Cedric Rucker University Center (CRUC).

Eligibility:
Employer information tables are a wonderful way to meet students and have informal conversations at no cost to you. However, to ensure a fair and diverse representation of opportunities for our students, each employer is permitted to table twice per semester.

Scheduling:

• Days: Tabling is permitted from Monday to Thursday
• Time: The designated hours for tabling are from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
• Location: Second floor of the Cedric Rucker University Center

Provided Resources:
UMW will provide the following for each employer table:

• One six-foot table
• Two chairs
• One parking spot for the employer’s convenience

Registration and Approval:
Employers interested in hosting an information table should email Student Experience Manager Emily Burke at eburke2@umw.edu with three preferred dates. Approval is subject to availability and alignment with UMW’s mission and values.

Setup and Cleanup:
Employers are responsible for setting up their table prior to 11:00 AM and cleaning up immediately after the event concludes at 1:00 PM. Any materials or debris must be removed, and the area should be left as it was found.

Conduct and Expectations:
Employers are expected to conduct themselves professionally and respect the UMW community. The content presented must be appropriate for a university setting and should not include offensive or discriminatory materials.

Cancellation and Rescheduling:
If an employer needs to cancel their scheduled tabling date, they must notify UMW at least 48 hours in advance. Rescheduling is subject to availability and cannot be guaranteed within the same semester.

Compliance:
Failure to adhere to these guidelines may result in the loss of tabling privileges in future semesters.

In our effort to maintain the integrity of recruiting at UMW, Career Services—has developed standards for recruitment across the University. All activities must adhere to these policies in addition to UMW University wide policies found here https://www.umw.edu/policies/university-policies/ .

Recruiting Standards

• The National Association of Colleges & Employers (NACE) Principles for Ethical Professional Practice are the guiding principles for UMW’s career center recruiting practices. All employers/organizations are expected to be familiar with these principles, and to abide by these principles and all applicable federal, state, and local Virginia rules and regulations.
• Organizations should be aware of the NACE Faculty Guide to Ethical and Legal Standards in Student Employment.
• Employment professionals will maintain equal employment opportunity (EEO) compliance and follow affirmative action principles in recruiting activities in a manner that includes the following practices:
  • Recruiting, interviewing, and hiring individuals without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, veteran status, or disability, and providing reasonable accommodations upon request
  • Reviewing selection criteria for adverse impact based upon the student’s race, color, national origin, religion, age, gender, sexual orientation, veteran status, or disability
  • Avoiding questions that are considered unacceptable by EEO guidelines for fair employment practices during the recruiting process
  • Developing a sensitivity to, and awareness of, cultural differences and the diversity of the workforce 
  • Informing campus constituencies of special activities that have been developed to achieve the employer’s affirmative action goals 
  • Investigating complaints forwarded by UMW’s career centers regarding EEO noncompliance and seeking resolution of such complaints
• Employers should maintain compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) throughout the entire recruitment process; we recommend the Job Accommodation Network (JAN)’s Employer Practical Guide to Reasonable Accommodation.

Statement of Community Values

As a public, liberal arts university, the University of Mary Washington community is dedicated to providing a diverse, accepting, and supportive environment that holds all of its members to the highest standards of conduct, scholarship, integrity, inclusiveness, respect, and engagement. Through a commitment to these values, we strive to transform our academic community into a place where all will learn, thrive, and grow. As faculty, staff, and students of the UMW community, we are committed to upholding these common values:

• Accountability – we promote practices, behaviors, and attitudes where individuals take responsibility for their actions and decisions.
• Scholarship – we promote intellectual inquiry by engaging ideas and one another in order to gain better understanding and contribute to knowledge.
• Personal and Institutional Integrity – we are honorable in our academic and work endeavors as well as our interactions with others.
• Inclusive Excellence – we strive for all members of the community to have equitable access to opportunities for participation and the resources necessary for success.
• Respect and Civility – we foster an environment in which every individual is treated with dignity at all times by valuing the inherent worth of all identities, abilities, and differences.
• Engagement – we develop engaged members of our community who actively participate in the community through responsible leadership and service.

We ASPIRE to live these values and work to support our collective and individual successes.

Direct Referrals & Special Requests 

Employers who have an interest in recruiting UMW students are encouraged to use Handshake as their primary recruiting resource, regardless of their specific selection criteria. In order to ensure equal access to all students, our staff will not provide direct referrals, student recommendations, or any type of list of “top” candidates to any party, including employers, faculty, staff, etc. Employers should use Handshake to post their open positions and select their own candidates based on the specific guidelines and needs of their individual company. We encourage UMW faculty and staff to refer all employers to Handshake if they would like to recruit our students.

Recruiting Events

We request that employers coordinate on-campus recruiting events through our career center to ensure that organizations do not host conflicting events or events that do not comply with university policies. We ask that employers be mindful of their responsibility to communicate any changes or event cancellations to us and their student attendees. 

Inclement Weather

Should the university be closed for inclement weather, any recruiting event or activity being held on campus will automatically be canceled. Our staff will be available to assist with questions about rescheduling your on-campus events once the University reopens. Please be sure to alert us to any changes regarding the contact information of your recruiting personnel due to inclement weather.

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Handshake Posting Policies

• Postings should be submitted to appear on Handshake for no longer than a one-year time period. The UMW career center reserves the right to make edits to expiration dates as required.
• Organizations must not disclose any student information for any reason without obtaining prior written consent from the student. Failure to comply with this is a violation of Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).  
• Under no circumstances can student information be disclosed for anything other than the original recruiting purposes, nor can it be sold or provided to other entities.
• In the event that these guidelines are not met, we reserve the right to revoke access to our online recruiting platform.

1. CONTACT INTEGRITY

• All organizations are asked to accurately describe their business within their employer profiles on Handshake.
• Organizations must accurately and adequately describe the opportunity and its qualifications and requirements within the posting.
• Staff member user accounts must list an employer-affiliated email address. Profiles and postings listed with a personal email domain (gmail.com, yahoo.com, etc.) are not allowed, unless otherwise verified.
• All organizations are required to have a phone number associated with their employer profile. Phone number(s) must be tied to a company contact and not be a generic (800) number.
• Physical address must be present and verifiable. For fully remote organizations/opportunities, the address in Handshake should match that of the organization’s business/entity license. 

2. THIRD-PARTY RECRUITERS (EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES, SEARCH FIRMS AND CONTRACT RECRUITERS)

NACE defines third party recruiters as follows: “Third-party recruiters are agencies, organizations, or individuals recruiting candidates for temporary, part-time, or full-time employment opportunities other than for their own needs. This includes entities that refer or recruit for profit or not for profit, and it includes agencies that collect student information to be disclosed to employers for purposes of recruitment and employment.” Additionally, Handshake provides this additional guidance for third party recruiters. 

Individuals and agencies recruiting on behalf of other organizations must comply with these additional recruiting policies:

• Any new or existing third-party recruiting organization that fails to identify themselves as third party will be declined by default; contacts are encouraged to correct this information through Handshake Support.
• All representatives of organizations who participate in third party recruiting are required to identify themselves as third party recruiters, regardless of the positions they post within the system.
• All agencies/recruiters must disclose the client’s name to Career Services staff before the posting will be accepted in Handshake. The posting itself does not have to include the client’s name, and Career Services staff will not reveal your client’s identity to interested candidates.

3. RESUME REFERRAL FIRMS AND JOB/INTERNSHIP BOARD WEBSITES

All postings in Handshake must be tied directly to an individual employer. Postings from resume referral firms or independent job/internship board websites designed for the collection of resumes on behalf of a large number of employers will not be accepted into the Handshake system.

4. EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING and INTERNSHIP GUIDELINES

The UMW career center supports and promotes experiential learning opportunities that connect classroom and workplace-based learning for the student and incorporate supervision, mentoring and feedback by an experienced professional.

Internship postings should meet the NACE definition and criteria for internships and adhere to the Department of Labor’s Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). These standards state that an internship should meet the following criteria:

• The experience must be an extension of the classroom: a learning experience that allows students to apply the knowledge gained in the classroom. It must not be simply to advance the operations of the employer or be the work that a regular employee would routinely perform.
• The skills or knowledge learned must be transferable to other employment settings.
• The experience has a defined beginning and end and a job description with desired qualifications.
• There are clearly defined learning objectives/goals related to the professional goals of the student’s academic coursework. 
• There is supervision by a professional with expertise and educational and/or professional background in the field of the experience.
• There is routine feedback by the experienced supervisor. 
• There are resources, equipment, and facilities provided by the host employer that support learning objectives/goals.

We ask all employers posting unpaid internships to closely review the additional details provided in the links above to ensure that internships with your organization are in line with federal law. Furthermore, we encourage employers to reference the Virginia Employer Readiness Toolkit: A blueprint to develop quality internship opportunities for Virginia’s talent pipeline.

Note: Per the FLSA’s Fact Sheet #71, “If analysis of these circumstances reveals that an intern or student is actually an employee, then he or she is entitled to both minimum wage and overtime pay under the FLSA.” UMW’s career center reserves the right to decline any postings for opportunities that cannot demonstrate that the student is the “primary beneficiary” of the intern-employer relationship.

5. WORK IN PRIVATE HOMES AND REMOTE POSITIONS WITHOUT DIRECT SUPERVISION

All employers posting in Handshake at UMW must provide a business license number, if requested. Any position where a student will be working remotely and at a distance from the direct supervisor will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Employers may not work from home and request to hire students to work in that location.

6. MARKETING AND ADVERTISING WITHIN HANDSHAKE

Handshake and the career centers’ social media feeds (LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) are designed to connect students to career readiness programming, internships, co-op and job opportunities. No advertising is allowed for products and services other than to draw interest to active job/internship posting(s).

7. NO BUY-INS OR FEE-FOR-SERVICE

Employers may not charge any “up front” fee as a contingency for employment, training and/or work placement. Absolutely no postings will be accepted if applicants must pay or purchase access for opportunities or a position that requires a potential employee to provide funds to a supervisor or other company representative for services. Donation requests, investment opportunities, items/services for sale, or opportunities requiring purchases and/or disclosure of private financial and identification information (i.e., bank accounts, Social Security Numbers) at the time of application may not be posted. 

8. INDEPENDENT CONTRACT (1099) AND COMMISSION-ONLY POSITIONS

We welcome independent contract and commission-based positions; however, this detail of the position must be stated clearly in the job description. Positions offering partial commission compensation must clearly state the guaranteed base salary and estimated commission potential as separate figures in the initial posting description.

9. STUDENT CONTACT

Feel free to contact students directly who apply for your opportunities. However, when contacting students by email or phone, please be certain to clearly state the organization you represent and the position you are contacting them about. Any email correspondence must come through your company/organization email account and not a personal email address. Organizations are also encouraged to leverage the student messaging options in Handshake, following these suggested messaging best practices. 

10.  ADULT ENTERTAINMENT

No adult entertainment industry positions, escort services, presentation modeling or similar activity associated with the use of alcohol or other drugs will be accepted.

11.  MARIJUANA/CANNABIS INDUSTRY

Positions related to the study and cultivation of medical marijuana with organizations licensed to operate as such within the State of Virginia will be permitted. As the use of cannabis and marijuana is illegal at the federal level, positions related to the use or distribution of recreational cannabis or medical marijuana will not be approved for posting in Handshake at UMW.

UMW Career Center Rights and Discretion

The University of Mary Washington Career Center reserves the right to make exceptions to these policies and guidelines in cases where doing so is deemed appropriate and beneficial to our students, our offices, the university, or our recruiting partners. Such exceptions will be evaluated individually and do not imply a permanent policy change or guarantee of similar decisions in the future.

Our center is committed to fostering open access and strong connections between students and employers. However, we reserve the right to approve or decline job postings and recruiting organizations based on internal standards. This includes denying access to organizations flagged for suspicious or unprofessional conduct on Handshake or by peer institutions. We may also restrict access to organizations that do not align with the mission and values of UMW or its Career Center.

Purpose and Goals: UMW Career Services is committed to strengthening partnerships with employers through collaborative discussions and mutual engagement. Our primary goals are to enhance relationships between employers, Career Services, and the University, improve employer brand recognition efforts, and gather feedback to optimize career services for both employers and students. Board Member terms are two years, with the option for one renewal at the discretion of the Chair. The Chair is the Associate Director of Employer Engagement. Board membership is by nomination or invitation only. If you are interested in serving or nominating someone to serve you can find the application form

The Virginia Talent + Opportunity Partnership (V-TOP) offers free, online, self-paced training to help employers design high-quality internship experiences for students. Employers who complete the training and meet other eligibility criteria may also qualify for the V-TOP Matching Funds Program, which provides matching funds and/or staffing services to create or expand an internship program. Connect with us to learn more!