Background noise

The issue of background checks for university professors has come to the fore lately, after Shippensburg University discovered that one of its veteran professors had pled guilty to child molestation three years before joining the faculty. Richard Gibbs had been a professor at Shippensburg since 1990, despite having pled guilty to indecent assault on a 13-year-old boy in 1987. His conviction came to light, not because the university checked on his background, but because he was arrested for possession of child pornography in June of this year.\nShippensburg, in Pennsylvania, does not require criminal background checks for its professors, although it does for other employees. IU has almost the same policy. Staff members have to undergo background checks. But, according to a 2005 Action of the University Faculty Council, unless a prospective professor will be working with "vulnerable populations" no check is required.\nWe don't think that is fair. We're not convinced that every employee needs to have a criminal background check, but if you are going to be running checks on some, you should run them on all. It doesn't say much for the University that we hold our staff to a higher standard than our faculty.\nDoes anyone actually believe that just because you have an advanced education, you are that much less likely to have committed a crime? While criminals tend to have lower levels of education than the general population, a 2003 Department of Justice report still noted that 12.7 percent of the prison population (and 23.9 percent in federal prisons) had postsecondary educations. It's this sort of incredible egotism and hubris that give academics a bad name in the first place. Nor should it grant you an exemption from a background check if the \nUniversity has decided that employees should have one.\nIf anything, it should be the other way around. Faculty are the most visible faces of the University. Yet the University is saying that while residence, dining hall and facilities staff need a criminal check, the, faculty who work directly with students every day, do not. This doesn't make any sense to us. \nIf the University is serious about creating one university community, it needs to treat all members of the community the same. Many businesses run background checks on prospective employees, so the University is justified if it believes them necessary. But the University should either require checks of everybody or nobody. \nAlternatively, they could craft a policy that requires checks for those employees who deal with vulnerable populations or in sensitive positions. Such a policy would exempt most staff, while including some faculty. The point is that it would treat all employees the same. \nThe faculty and staff here at IU are of the highest caliber. They make the University what it is. It's only fair that they are all treated with the same level of respect. So either check, or don't. But don't discriminate.