Posted: 05/02/07

Common Application, college essay...background check?
Officials debate background checks for college applicants

Mark Gould | tech editor
mgould@smcvt.edu

The Common Application, which is accepted by 298 colleges and universities, added new questions regarding discipline for its 2006 form. (Image created by Mark Gould )

The shooting that left 32 dead at Virginia Tech has sparked some calls for background checks on college applicants to prevent violent crimes on campuses.

“We support background checks after a student is accepted,” says Alison Kiss, program director of Security on Campus, Inc., a national non-profit organization that advocates preventing college and university campus crime. “We find that a lot of crimes on campus are student on student, and more times than not that student has a criminal background.”

Many colleges, including Virginia Tech, already ask applicants whether they have been convicted of a violation of federal or state laws. Applicants are also asked about any disciplinary action they have been subjected to in high school.

Recent changes

The University of North Carolina is in the process of requiring background checks on the entire campus, which would include students, faculty and staff, Kiss says. She says this was in response to earlier murders which took place on campus.

“There were two cases at North Carolina at Wilmington where two female students were murdered by other students who had criminal backgrounds," Kiss says.

The Common Application, which is accepted by 298 colleges and universities, added new questions regarding discipline for its 2006 form.

One question reads, “Have you ever been found responsible for a disciplinary violation at an educational institution you have attended from 9th grade forward (or the international equivalent), whether related to academic misconduct or behavioral misconduct, that resulted in your probation, suspension, removal, dismissal or expulsion from the institution?”

The application also asks whether the applicant has been convicted of a misdemeanor, felony, or other crime, and if so, to provide details.

St. Michael’s Director of Admission Jacqueline Murphy says as an applicant, Seung-Hui Cho might not have raised any flags. (Andrew Parise, photo )

St. Michael’s Director of Admission Jacqueline Murphy says next year, the college will only accept the Common Application. She says the discipline question is not always answered truthfully.

“We’re dealing with people who have been juveniles, and if you’ve committed a felony and tried as a juvenile you’re within your rights to not make that information public,” Murphy says.

Director of Safety and Security at St. Michael's Pete Soons says it would be difficult to do background checks effectively on people who are under 18.

“It would be a major undertaking,” Soons says. "It’s a matter of resources, and it’s also that in many cases, you don’t start a criminal record until you’re 18."

Murphy says she is more interested in the questions regarding disciplinary action at school.

“Students tend to be extremely forthcoming about it and it’s very refreshing,” Murphy says. “They just tell you what happened, what they learned from it.”

However, Murphy says students sometimes don’t divulge information about disciplinary action that takes place after they apply.

“Senior year, after students have filed applications to colleges, often it is then that they get into some trouble,” she says. “While students are asked to inform us of that, they rarely remember to do that.”

As an applicant, Murphy says Seung-Hui Cho might not have raised any flags.

“Even if he were to apply to a small school like us, he might get a very short letter of recommendation (from teachers),” Murphy says. “A lot of teachers would not be willing to question a person’s mental health in a recommendation for fear of it coming back to haunt them. I think people will rethink that for a little while, but not forever.”

Rethinking admission procedures

Joseph Finley, vice president for sales of Certified Background, says background checks might be wise if students admit to crimes on their application.

“At the admissions level, what some schools are looking at now is maybe not doing background checks on everyone, but if someone admits to something on one of the questions, then they might want to do a background check and find out what happened," Finley says.

Certified Background performs background checks for colleges and employers nationwide. Currently, Finley says the company does student checks for 500 colleges.

Most of these checks are required by schools for student teaching or working in hospitals. Finley says he predicts private schools like St. Michael’s could soon perform background checks on the admissions level.

“As far as doing it at the admissions level, I would see it happening in private schools before public schools,” he says. “People who are sending their kids to private school want to make sure that people that have some kind of bad past aren’t going to get into that school.”

Finley says each background check costs around $40. Murphy says to require background checks on all applicants would be difficult financially.

“I just can’t imagine universities would spend the money to do that,” she says. “We have 3,500 applications that we have to read for a class that is a little over 525. It just seems so impractical.”

Murphy says if part of an application is questionable, she often calls the high school to discuss the applicant.

“Last year I interviewed a student who I thought was very unstable,” Murphy says. “What I knew to do was contact the school, and they couldn’t tell me the details, but they knew me well enough that they said this is not someone you want on your campus.”

Finley says when an incident like the shooting at Virginia Tech occurs, schools sometimes rethink their admissions procedures.

“Now that we’re looking at background checks at the admissions level, I believe this is something where schools want to show that they’re doing something, but they don’t want to build a big wall around the school,” he says. “Maybe you can’t prevent something from happening down the road.”

Finley says it would take a lot before universities required background checks along with application papers.

“Going to the level of doing a background check on every student that may want to come to your school is going to be a big jump for a lot of schools,” he says.

Kiss says for this to happen, laws would have to start on a state by state level.

“It seems like something that there’s a lot of controversy around, and it may need to start on the state level,” she says.