Affiliates of the University

An Affiliate is any individual who has a formal affiliation with the university, and receives some services from the university, but is not a student or employee of the university, and receives no remuneration from the university. (Formal affiliation means that a necessary relationship exists between the university and the individual to provide a service of value to the university.)

Sponsoring departments must submit an electronic Affiliate Hire Form to initiate Affiliate services. Electronic forms are also available for Affiliate Renewal, Updates, and Termination.

The electronic form moves through the department’s approval routing, up to and including Assistant/Associate Vice President, Dean, or Vice Provost approval and HR approval before the information is entered into the Human Resource Management System by Payroll. Affiliate status is usually granted within seven days after the form has moved appropriately through the approval process.

Affiliate Hire Forms are not needed for Emeritus Faculty and Emeritus Staff. The president’s approval letter suffices for granting services. Please refer to section 6 Procedures in Policy 2105 Emeritus Faculty and section 6.5 Nomination Procedures in Policy 1318 Emeritus Staff.

Which Form Do I Use?

Sponsoring departments please note the following:

The electronic affiliate forms are not recyclable. If a mistake is made and/or the form is denied by any approver, the originator will need to retype all responses into the form again and resubmit the form.
The affiliate form does not prevent duplicate forms from being entered and submitted to approvers.
Each sponsoring department should develop a business process to designate who will be submitting the affiliate form and who needs to be listed in the department’s approval routing, up to and including the level of Assistant/Associate Vice President, Dean, or Vice Provost.
Vice President (VP) approval is not normally necessary, but could be required by the division’s VP.

Affiliate Service Request Hire Form
Use this form to grant services to a new individual or a previous Affiliate (service end date has passed). It is the Sponsoring department’s responsibility to establish any additional expectations for Affiliates prior to submitting the Affiliate Service Request Hire Form.

Affiliate Renewal Form
Use this form to renew/extend services for an Affiliate before their service end date.

Affiliate Termination Form
Use this form to terminate services for an Affiliate before their service end date.

Affiliate Update Form
Use this form to update data for an Affiliate, add/remove a service, or update an Affiliate’s sponsor. Note: There is a box to check if you need to permanently replace sponsor information for all Affiliates under a specific Sponsor. Use this when the Sponsor transfers out of your department or leaves the university.

Which Affiliate Group Do I Select?

See the current list of Affiliate Groups.

How Do I Complete the Forms?

See Instructions for completing the JMU Affiliate Service Forms.

Does the Affiliate Need a Criminal Background Check?

In accordance with Policy 1337 - Affiliates, each individual being considered for Affiliate status who associates directly with minors (any person under the age of 18) or who is granted access to highly confidential data (university data which, because of its associated legal restrictions or potential security ramifications, is authorized for use only on a very limited basis and only with special security precautions); including but not limited to social security numbers, credit card numbers, and bank account information, is required to have a criminal background check. Sponsoring departments indicate the need for a background check when completing the Affiliate Hire Form. Approval for Affiliate status is contingent on the results of the criminal background check.

What Happens if an Affiliate Does Not Change Their Password?

Affiliates are required to change their password regularly. Emeriti email and eID accounts are removed when required password changes are ignored over a period of a year. Timely password changes are important because the JMU eID (also called “username” in some applications/systems) is the electronic identification that provides access to password protected websites and services, such as MyMadison, important software downloads, and JMU’s Official Wireless network for email. Email notifications are sent periodically to remind individuals to change the password to avoid losing eID account and email access permanently.

What Other Expectations Exist for Affiliates?

Affiliates must abide by university policy. Departments providing services reserve the right to allow or deny services to Affiliates according to need and relationship with the university. Affiliate status is at the discretion of the university, and may be withdrawn at any time.

Questions may be directed to your department’s HR Consultant or emailed to workforcemgmt@jmu.edu