Background check law stirs confusion

Indiana law requires some state institutions to conduct background checks on their potential or current employees. Whether IU is one of these institutions, no one really knows right now.\nThat ambiguity was a particular sore spot Thursday afternoon as the IU board of trustees took up the issue of criminal background checks for IU faculty and staff on the first day of its monthly meeting.\nThe board reached no consensus, but IU board of trustees President Fred Eichhorn said he thought the proposal was "clearly a work in progress" that would require more discussion and more clarification.\nHe was unsure if the trustees would consider it at their next meeting or at a later date.\nUnder Indiana law, performing background checks is dependent on whether a state institution is defined as a "body politic" or a "body corporate." In the first case, the state requires background checks; in the latter, it does not.\nIU is defined as a body politic, but some other state universities -- Purdue and Ball State, most notably -- are not. Others still are defined as both a body politic and a body corporate, and some IU officials question whether universities were ever meant to be included in the background check law in the first place.\nIU has required system-wide background checks on staff and hourly employees since July 2004. William Plater, the dean of faculties for IU-Purdue University Indianapolis, told the board that his campus has gone further and has been conducting comprehensive criminal background checks on all new academic employees, in addition to staff and hourly employees.\nPlater said IUPUI requires background checks for medical, nursing, education and social work faculty members because they work in close proximity with "vulnerable populations," such as children or the elderly.\nDorothy Frapwell, IU's legal counsel, said there is disagreement with defining the University's position within the statute. But the more important issue now, Frapwell told the board, was determining whether IU wants to consider conducting background checks on one of three levels -- checks on all faculty and staff, limited checks on faculty and staff or no checks at all.\nSome trustees expressed support for the measure.\nTrustee Steve Ferguson said he feels the background checks are part of an obligation a university has to its student body. \n"I think we all have a responsibility to every child that steps on this campus and to every parent to make sure they are safe, and a responsibility not to hire somebody that isn't," Ferguson said. "I think the reputation of the University on the whole is to require that safety."\nTrustee Sue Talbot said she strongly believes before the board makes any movement to consider background checks, there needs to be a clear definition of the law. She also expressed her concern for student safety on campus.\n"I do think we need to be very clear with what we're doing," Talbot told the board. "I also think we have a definite obligation. All students are vulnerable, I don't care what age. Whenever they're having one-on-one office hours, trust me, they're vulnerable."\nBloomington Faculty Council representatives David Daleke and Ted Miller emphasized that faculty are not against background checks but would rather see criminal checks performed for "only those positions where it is appropriate."\nAdditionally, aside from the costs of the checks -- estimated by University officials at $150,000 a year for the Bloomington campus alone if the checks included associate instructors -- the BFC representatives said there was also a concern that exhaustive background checks might create a negative perception about working at IU.\nToday at their business meeting, the trustees will consider whether to lease to the IU Foundation the abandoned Beta Theta Pi fraternity house, 919 E. 10th St., which was tabled at their meeting last month. A tentative agenda also includes approval for the IU-Bloomington residence halls housing rates for 2005-06, which was debated Thursday by the board of trustees' Finance and Audit Committee. \n-- Contact Senior Writer Tony Sams at ajsams@indiana.edu.