MPR News Intelligence on higher education

When is an oral job offer as good as a written one?

Alex Friedrich December 19, 2011, 11:44 AM Dec 19, 2011

Concordia University – St. Paul faculty member David Mennicke joined a minority of Public Insight Network folks who’ve commented on the Emmer-Hamline job-offer flap in saying that it wouldn’t be fair to dump a candidate after an oral offer is extended.

He adds:

An oral offer should be extended only if the formal written offer is guaranteed.

He tells me later:

“Once you make that statement, you need to have your ducks in a row. It means you have done due process. Once you’ve made a verbal promise, your word should be good.”

About the blogger

Alex Friedrich

afriedrich@mpr.org

Alex Friedrich reports on higher education issues for MPR News. Among the stories he has covered: the fall of the Berlin Wall, aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, 2003 Moscow suicide bombing and 2004 presidential elections in the Republic of Georgia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Georgia and a master’s in European political economy from the London School of Economics.

JoannaOC

BUT, if you screwed up and made an oral offer without following proper procedures, you screwed up! An oral offer is not legally binding, and should never be made until you are absolutely sure that hiring practices have been respected. Otherwise, any administrator could promise a job to a buddy and then say “but I made an oral offer!” That’s why we have those procedures in the first place: to avoid cronyism.