A Person of Interest (POI) is an individual who is not an employee but requires a Panther ID to perform duties assigned by the department. A POI request can be completed either by the supervisor or an HR Liaison. The POI online request can be found in Employee Self Service within PantherSoft HR. A POI may be subject to a background check and/or fingerprinting depending on their assigned duties.

Notification of Panther ID and account provisions will be sent to the appropriate HR Liaison via e-mail from MyAccounts – Division of Information Technology.

Required Forms for Research POI Types:

1. POI Research Intake Form and Intellectual Property Agreement
2. Host Department Supplemental Form

For a guide on how to submit or check the status of a POI request click here.

Below is a list of POI types and their definitions:

• AAA Instructor: An MDCPS* staff and/or AP teacher not teaching FIU courses.
• Conference Housing Guest: An individual staying as a guest in housing for a camp, conference or personal assistant for a student.
• Consultant: A non FIU employee providing services and working on a university initiative.
• Emeritus: A retired faculty who was granted emeritus status upon retirement. An emeritus letter needs to be attached.
• External Auditor: A non FIU employee who performs an audit in accordance with specific laws/regulations and who is independent of the entity being audited.
• External Instructor: A non FIU instructor providing educational guidance for a specified program not affiliated with FIU.
• External Trainee: A non FIU student with an affiliation with the university taking part in a trainee offered program.
• Fellowship: Students on fellowships that are either in an undergraduate or graduate program.
• FIU Embrace Day Participants: is a POI type specifically assigned by the FIU Embrace program for participants of this program. The FIU Embrace Center for Advancing Inclusive Communities is a center that empowers each differently abled person to live at their fullest potential through research-based and innovative programming, community engagement, and professional skills development.
• Intern: Students in an academic program given the opportunity to explore career options and gain working experience at FIU.
  • Requires a copy of the Intern’s University school IDand completed Intern application forms A & B attached to the POI request.

• MAST Instructor: MDCPS* staff and teachers not teaching FIU dual enrollment courses.
• MDCPS Student: MDCPS* students participating in a partnership program with FIU.
  • Requires a completed Volunteer application forms A & B attached to the online POI request. It does not need to be emailed to volunteers@fiu.edu since they require a PID# and AD account access.
• Miami FC: Professional organization in Miami renting one of our facilities for athletic training purposes.
• PantherLIFE and Embrace: Any individual, including MDCPS coordinators, who will be working/volunteering in these two programs and interacting with these students.
• Phased Retirement: Faculty who are retired under the Phased Retirement plan.
• Recruitment Search & Screen: A non FIU employee serving on a search and screen committee.
• Research/Project: A researcher or other type of academic or administrative collaborator.
• Research Labs: Individuals performing duties in Biosafety Level 2 (BLS-2) labs as listed in the External Volunteers Policy and Procedures. Minors under the age of 16 cannot enter a lab. There are specific restrictions for Minors between the age of 16-18 in lab spaces. This requires additional approval from Environmental Health & safety (EH&S) and the Office of Research & Economic Development (ORED).
  • Requires a completed Intern application forms A & Battached to the online POI request. It does not need to be emailed to volunteers@fiu.edu since they require a PID# and AD account access/Lab access.
• Resident Physician: A medical school graduate who is participating in a Graduate Medical Education program and training in a specialized area of medicine. Resident Physicians work under supervision of a HWCOM Faculty member.
• ROTC: Cadre from other campuses who visit to perform duties at FIU and contracted staff not teaching military science courses.
• Student Board: Students on the Executive Board of a student run organization.
• University Trustee: Appointed by the Governor of Florida or the SUS Board of Governors.
• Visiting Scholar: A Visiting Scholar is a temporary, non‑employee guest of the University who is invited to participate in academic, research, or scholarly activities in collaboration with faculty. These individuals typically hold an appointment at an external institution and engage in activities such as research collaboration, academic exchange, and guest lectures. Visiting Scholars do not receive salary or wages from the University.
  Departments must send the sponsorship letter to Academic Resource Management for approval via a POI request. Once approved invitation letter can be sent to International Student Services (ISSS) for processing of the visa.

*MDCPS: Miami Dade County Public School