Last semester, Syracuse University administrators tasked professor Thomas Perreault with presenting a faculty background check policy to Senate members for discussion and feedback.

But Perreault, then chair of the University Senate’s Committee on Academic Freedom, Tenure and Professional Ethics, was concerned by the limited information the administration provided to him about the policy, beyond its goal of requiring new faculty hires to undergo a criminal background check before they are able to begin their position.

“I made it pretty clear in my comments to the Senate that (the committee) was not endorsing the policy, and we have a number of concerns about the policy,” said Perreault, who is no longer on the committee. “The administration hadn’t provided enough information for us to actually make much of a judgement one way or the other.”

Provost Michele Wheatly officially announced at last month’s University Senate meeting that new faculty members will be required to undergo criminal background checks starting Jan. 1, 2020. Her remarks revealed few details about what the background check process will involve, which has become a cause for concern among several faculty members, including Perreault.

Current members of the Committee on Academic Freedom, Tenure and Professional Ethics declined to comment on what the policy will include. Perreault said logistical information about the process, such as the cost and timeframe of each background check, wasn’t revealed to him by the administration.

SU administrators, however, did reveal to him that the background checks would look back seven years into an individual’s criminal record, he said. As far as he is aware, the background checks will only be searching for felonies and not misdemeanors.

In an email to SU faculty, Wheatly said the background checks will include a verification of the individual’s education and credentials and a check of their criminal record, as well as an unspecified “other misconduct check.”

Perreault said hiring a new faculty member is a lengthy and expensive undertaking. He is worried about the level of participation from existing faculty in the background check process and feels it’s important to ensure that an otherwise qualified candidate with a flaw on their record isn’t completely rejected by the university without faculty input.

“There are good reasons to keep things confidential when you’re talking about criminal records,” Perreault said. “At the same time, there (are) also really important reasons to have these kinds of processes be transparent.”

Jodi Upton, professor of magazine, news and digital journalism and a University Senate member, said she and other faculty members are concerned about what types of crimes are being searched for in the background check process. University administration has not defined what type of crimes they are looking for nor what level of severity will take a candidate out of the running, she said.

Upton said she is particularly apprehensive about the policy’s potential impact on individuals who were arrested for civil disobedience or activism in the past.

“Obviously, you want to be very careful that we’re not exposing anyone to potential harm, but at the same time we’re maintaining the privacy of anyone who actually applies for a position,” Upton said.

New staff hires at SU have been required to undergo background checks since 2016. Starting last summer, the university began to conduct background checks of staff members hired before 2016. PreTrax Inc., the company who has overseen these background checks, declined to comment about what the process involves.

Susan Nash is director of administration for the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications Dean’s Office. She said she doesn’t understand why background checks have been mandatory for staff but not faculty, who have more frequent and direct contact with students.

“There’s hundreds if not thousands of staff at this university who never encounter a student on a day-to-day basis, because they work for Physical Plant or in business offices that aren’t even on campus,” she said. “It’s a legitimate question that staff may be asking that ‘Well, if you’re so concerned with best practices and assuring students and their families that your campus is safer, why wouldn’t you do it on your faculty first?’”

Perreault said it’s not clear why it took SU so long to implement a faculty background check policy. Several of SU’s peer institutions, such as the Pennsylvania State University, Northeastern University and the University of Rochester, already require pre-employment background checks for faculty and staff.

Perreault said he believes the main purpose of the new background check policy will be to search for past sex offenses. Douglas Wonders, a former Newhouse professor, was convicted earlier this year on child sexual abuse charges. Former Olympic athlete Conrad Mainwaring was also recently accused of sexually assaulting at least seven SU students when he attended the university during the 1980s.

“The (background check) process is reflective of our primary concern for the health, safety and well-being of our students and the entire campus community,” Wheatly said in her email to faculty. “We believe this process reflects best practices across higher education institutions.”

But several faculty members are uneasy about the university’s policy until more information is released about the logistics involved in the university’s faculty background checks.

“We don’t exactly know how it will be implemented. We don’t know what the impact is,” Upton said. “It’s our job as senators to ask a lot of questions and to understand how the policy will work, and we just don’t know yet.”

Published on October 27, 2019 at 10:34 pm

Contact Gillian: gifollet@syr.edu