Opinion

Check them out

Two summers ago, the University of Wisconsin was embroiled in a scandal that made national headlines. In June 2005, it was revealed that three faculty members had been convicted of felonies and were still employed at UW. The nature of each of the men's crimes was that of stalking, molestation of young children and child enticement. Drawing even more attention to the matter was that administrators also admitted that performing background checks was not a standard practice when hiring faculty and staff.

After public outcry and scathing criticism from members of the state Legislature, UW took measures to terminate the felon's employment; UW System President Kevin Reilly asked the Legislative Audit Bureau to assess the university's employment policies and perform a count of how many convicted felons were on the system's payroll.

The audit found 40 felons were employed at the state's public universities — 27 of them at UW-Madison — and system administrators worked to draft a new policy regarding criminal background checks. Under the proposed policy, prospective faculty and staff members would be subject to criminal background checks, and such checks would also be carried out every four years for current UW employees.

It must be recognized that had such a policy been in place at the time of the controversy in '05, it would have done nothing to change the outcome of the incident. At the time the men committed their crimes, they were already under the employ of UW; because the nature of the crimes had little to do with their posts at the university, the school would have had difficultly terminating them solely based on the convictions.

But this week, UW Faculty Senate came out against the pending policy, alleging that it violates due process. Members of Faculty Senate also took issue with retroactively applying the process to faculty and staff that are already employed by UW.

We disagree with this sentiment, and we feel that instating a practice of routinely conducting background checks could enhance UW's image throughout the state, build public trust and improve the school's transparency.

It would be illegal for UW to deny employment to or terminate a person because he had been convicted of a felony that is unrelated to his position, thus ensuring his due process.

Furthermore, it is a growing trend among universities in the Big Ten to perform background checks, and it is also a standard part of the application process for private companies and some state agencies as well.

As long as UW observes the law in using criminal background checks on its future and current faculty and staff members, the institution has little to lose in adopting this new policy.