NACE Principles of Professional Practice for Career Services Professionals, Employment Professionals & Third-Party Recruiters

The Office of Career Services operates under the ethical standards for professional conduct set forth by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). All employers and third-party recruiting organizations that recruit Davidson College students and recent alumni are expected to follow the NACE Principles for Professional Practice. Any organizations that violate these principles will have their recruiting privileges revoked.

Non-Discrimination Policy

It is Davidson College's policy to admit qualified students and administer all educational, athletic, financial, and employment activities without discrimination based on race, color, gender, national origin, religion, age, sexual orientation, disability, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law unless allowed by law and deemed necessary to the administration of the college's educational programs or operations. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment as well as all academic, athletic, and other educational admissions, enrollment, participation, and programming. Davidson College expects that any employer or third-party organization representing an employer that posts a position through the Office of Career Services or uses the College's facilities for the purpose of recruiting for full-time, part-time, temporary or intern positions adheres to this policy and complies with federal and state equal employment opportunity laws in its recruiting and hiring.

Prohibited Postings

The Office of Career Services reserves the right to prohibit the posting of any position in its recruiting system. Employers and third-party recruiting agencies that recruit students and alumni for any of the following types of positions will not be provided with any services through the Office of Career Services at Davidson College.

• All positions that would employ students by a private individual (i.e. babysitter, editor of a book, tutor, caretaker, interior designer for your private home, etc.).
• All positions where students are hired to sell or promote an organization's products or services to other Davidson students.
• Full-time positions compensated only by commission.
• All positions from employers, volunteer agencies and third-party recruiting organizations that require students and alumni to pay a fee prior to employment.
• All positions with organizations that provide financial incentives to staff who recruit new hires for the organization and/or for which the recruiting staff member receives a portion of the new hire's commission.

Employer Guidelines for Posting Unpaid Internships

We encourage employers—particularly those in the private sector—to pay interns whenever possible. As many students focus their search on paid positions out of necessity, offering paid internships often results in a larger, more diverse, and more qualified pool of applicants. If your organization is considering posting unpaid internships through Davidson, you must confirm that those internships meet the NACE Guidelines for an Experience to be Defined as an Internship:

1. The experience must be an extension of the classroom: a learning experience that provides for applying 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.
2. The skills or knowledge learned must be transferable to other employment settings.
3. The experience has a defined beginning and end, and a job description with desired qualifications.
4. There are clearly defined learning objectives/goals related to the professional goals of the student's academic coursework.
5. There is supervision by a professional with expertise and educational and/or professional background in the field of the experience.
6. There is routine feedback by the experienced supervisor.
7. There are resources, equipment, and facilities provided by the host employer that support learning objectives/goals.

Private sector employers should also be familiar with the United States Department of Labor guidelines for legally offering unpaid internships. This fact sheet produced by the United States Department of Labor provides general information to help determine whether interns must be paid the minimum wage and overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act for the services that they provide to for-profit private sector employers.

While Davidson does offer a mechanism for granting academic credit for unpaid internships, this credit is only available if it is required by the employer. Employers who mandate academic credit must still meet our criteria for high-quality internships as well as the Department of Labor's criteria for unpaid internships. For information about our academic credit requirements, contact Ashley Neff at asneff@davidson.edu.

Guidelines for Posting Virtual Internships

The majority of internships posted at Davidson are traditional internships, where student interns work at the same physical location as their supervisor and have a safe and specific work space. If you are interested in posting a virtual internship at Davidson, you must indicate this in the Job Title (for example, Social Media Virtual Intern). All virtual internship position descriptions must meet the NACE criteria for internships in addition to the below criteria for virtual internships. We will review descriptions carefully to see that both sets of criteria are met before approving the posting.

Criteria for Virtual Internships

1. The internship site must use some type of online project management tool, such as Google Docs or Basecamp, so that work is stored in the "cloud" and not on a personal computer.
2. The internship includes a regular e-mail report (weekly, at a minimum) where the student provides information such as hours worked, challenges or problems encountered, and results obtained, and asks any questions that he or she may have.
3. The internship includes a weekly virtual meeting on Skype or a similar technology (highly preferred); if this meeting is impossible, then phone conversations are expected.
4. For local virtual internships (the site is not far from Davidson, but you are allowing the student to work from campus), you must meet with the student in a public place regularly throughout the internship.

Third Party Recruiting Policy

Third party recruiters who wish to post opportunities with Career ServicesÕ job database, WildcatLinks, must agree to the following terms and conditions:

• The third party recruiter must agree to disclose the name of the employer, as well as the position description. The client's name should appear in the title of the position.
• Students and alumni will not be charged a fee for the third party recruiter's services.
• The third party recruiter can be listed as the contact for student/alumni cover letters and resumes.
• If a Davidson student or alumnus is NOT selected for the specific position listed in WildcatLinks, that resume will NOT be put into the recruiter's general pool of candidates without the written consent of the individual.

This agreement will remain in effect for all positions posted through the third party recruiter. We reserve the right to remove any postings that do not adhere to our terms and conditions. Any violation of these terms will result in the loss of access to Davidson WildcatLinks.

Campus Recruiting Policies

The intention of the campus recruiting policies at Davidson College is to allow students ample time to carefully consider all of their employment options and to make informed decisions about their employment after Davidson. We educate students on evaluating and negotiating job offers and discourage them from hasty decisions that may lead to reneging, which we strongly discourage. In order to better meet student and employer needs, we have created the following campus recruiting policies

Exploding Offers
Employers may not offer incentives or exert undue pressure to students to accept/decline an offer before the deadlines stated below. An offer may not expire before the stated deadlines. Employers failing to adhere to these dates may be restricted from scheduling interviews the first two weeks of the following semester. Repeated offenses may result in restriction from campus recruiting completely.

Fall Semester - Full-time Offers from Summer Internships (Conversions):
Employers must give until November 15 for students to accept or decline offers OR four weeks after the date of the written offer, whichever is later (Conversions)
- Employers extending full-time offers to previous summer interns must allow students until November 15 to accept or decline OR a minimum of four weeks after the date of the written offer, whichever is later.

Fall Semester - Full-time Offers from Fall recruiting:
Employers must give until November 15 for students to accept or decline offers OR four weeks after the date of the written offer, whichever is later.

Spring Semester - Internship Offers from Spring Recruiting:
Students should be given 4 weeks minimum from the date of the verbal offer to accept/decline offers. For interviews after March 1, students should be given a minimum of 2 weeks from the date of the verbal offer to accept/decline.

Acceptance of Offers
Should an employer pursue a student for a full-time or an internship position knowing that the student has already accepted an offer (verbally or written) with another organization, the employer may be subject to being banned from Career ServicesÕ on-campus recruiting program for up to one year. This policy is in place to protect the employer with whom the student has accepted an offer and to protect the students from undue pressure.

Rescind Policy
Should economic realities force an employer to rescind on offers, the employer must report this to Career Services prior to when the actual rescinding takes place with the student. This will allow Career Services to prepare for the questions and concerns from students, in addition to preparing to work with the students on conducting a new search. Career Services would also continue to engage the employer in discussion so as to determine best steps in moving forward with their recruiting relationship at Davidson and assisting students who had their offer rescinded. Employers who rescind offers may be banned from the on-campus recruiting program for up to one year or longer.

Alcohol Policy
Career Services adheres to the NACE Principles for Professional Practice, which states that serving alcohol should not be a part of the recruitment process. Therefore, all recruiting activity, including all information sessions, should be alcohol-free.

The Office of Career Services adheres to the aforementioned policies and guidelines to ensure the quality of our services and reserves the right to modify these terms and conditions at any time.