IU employees might face investigations

New faculty members might have to expose their personal lives to obtain a job in the near future. The purpose of the background investigations is one attempt by the University to do what it takes to keep students and the campus out of harm's way.\nThe Bloomington Faculty Council met Tuesday to discuss the possible need for background checks among new IU employees. New IU faculty members dealing with children or handling money might be subject to criminal to such checks. Advocates believe the background checks will help detect and eliminate criminals, sex offenders and applicants who lie on their job applications.\nThe proposal is currently under consideration by the BFC. If approved at its meeting next month, the faculty background checks could go into effect as early as December on all eight IU campuses.\nIn July, a policy went into effect requiring new non-academic staff to submit to criminal background checks. New faculty members on any IU campus do not have to participate in the criminal background checks, but new faculty on the IU-Purdue University Indianapolis campus are currently subject to the criminal background checks.\nIU would not be the first university to implement such investigations, as faculty members at other Big Ten universities are subject to criminal background checks. Penn State University began conducting criminal background checks in January upon discovering that a valued faculty member was on parole for a 1965 triple murder in Texas.\nA state law requiring rigorous employee background checks for state entities went into effect in 2003 and sparked IU's interest in having all new IU employees submit to criminal background checks. \nIU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis commented on the issue.\n"I believe that the faculty is trying to develop a policy that is not burdensome to schools and departments but complies with state law," said Gros Louis.\nWhile IU officials say this law covers the University, not all members of the BFC agree.\nBFC members are concerned that IU administrators who also hire the faculty would conduct criminal background checks. \nTed Miller, chair of the BFC's Faculty Affairs Committee, said they are also concerned that alternative proposals would possibly require criminal background checks for all newly hired faculty.\nJunior Kara Flemming was shocked when she found out all faculty members at IU do not have to go through criminal background checks. She said as an elementary education major, she feels people have the right to know with whom who they are working.\n"From a teacher's standpoint, I definitely feel that it is inappropriate to not have criminal background checks on potential teachers," Flemming said. "They are dealing with the students of the future. If they do not have a positive person to take after, students are going to spiral downwards."\nFlemming has already had to partake in a criminal background check to participate in a study abroad program. She said next year when she begins applying for full-time teaching positions, she will more than likely have to undergo a background check.\n-- Contact staff writer Kristin Huett at khuett@indiana.edu.