New background check requirements cause employee frustration

New requirements for employee background checks have caused frustration in the Saint Joseph’s University community.

 

The background check policy that was approved by the Board of Trustees in December 2014 requires that by the end of the 2015 calendar year, all employees of Saint Joseph's University must complete the Pennsylvania Department of Education clearances, which include the PA Criminal Record Check, the PA Child Abuse Check, and the FBI Fingerprint Check.

 

This new policy was enacted in order to be in accordance with new Pennsylvania state legislation, PA Act 153 of 2014 (HB 435), which states that all employees in post secondary institutions who have “routine interaction with minors” must obtain clearances.

 

According to a document published by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (PADHS), direct contact with children or minors is defined as “the care, supervision, guidance or control of children or routine interaction with children.”

 

Additionally, according to the document, this legislation “excludes an individual who has no direct contact with children.”

 

Regardless of the terms and criterion put forth by the PADHS, the St. Joe’s Office of Human Resources (HR) is requiring that all faculty (full-time, part-time, and temporary), administrators, and staff of St. Joe's, regardless of whether or not they interact with minors, complete all three clearances.

 

Additionally, according to HR, these background checks are "a condition of employment and must be recertified every three years."

 

In a document entitled “Background Check FAQs” published by HR, a frequently asked question is listed as, “What if I don’t work with minors?” HR’s response is that, “Saint Joseph’s University seeks to comply with the PA Act 153 fully and, in doing so, is guided by and committed to the protection of minors in our community. There are members of our freshman class who are minors while attending the University, visitors to classes and campus who are minors, and programs running throughout the year that engage minors on and off-campus. A consistent institutional approach that seeks to ensure the safety of these minors is not only prudent, but consistent with our values and mission. While individual perspectives may vary, we are confident that Saint Joseph’s institutional path to compliance and ongoing commitment to the safety of minors is a sound and effective one.”

 

According to Sharan Eisenmann, vice president of Human Resources, "This is a change, as previously we had only required these clearances of individuals working with programs and activities involving minors."

 

Prior to December 2014, the university did not have an official background check policy, but according to Eisenmann in an email, “[The Office of Human Resources'] practice since 2005 had been that all new hires are required to clear a criminal background check through an outside firm…later we required that if an individual was working with minors, they had to complete the PA Department of Education clearances [PA Criminal, FBI Fingerprint, and PA Child Abuse].”

 

Some members of the St. Joe’s community are not happy with this recent increase in clearance requirements and many claim that their interaction with minors, if any, on a regular basis is minimal and they are therefore confused as to why they have to complete the clearance.

 

Robert Moore, Ph.D., professor of sociology, said he did not have an issue completing these checks if he was dealing with individuals under the age of 18 on a regular basis, but since that is not the case for himself, he is simply confused.

 

"I have no problem with the background checks when dealing with minors, that's standard operating procedure, it should be done; [but] if you're not dealing with minors, I'm perplexed quite frankly why this is a requirement."

 

Moore went on to say that there is a possibility of slight interaction with minors at the start of their college careers but that overall the contact is minimal. "In the case of faculty here at the university it's possible that one could be interacting with someone who is below the age of 18 in the beginning of freshman year or something like that but by and large for most of us there is no contact with minors." he said.

 

Donya Coldwell, adjunct professor of College of Professional and Liberal studies (PLS) foreign languages, shared Moore’s view. "It's simply inappropriate and you are forcing me to say that at St. Joe's I have a significant likelihood of regular contact with children; you're forcing me to say that and it isn't true," said Coldwell.

 

Moore explained that he believes many institutions of higher education are now requiring that employees complete both minor and child abuse clearances in reaction to the Pennsylvania State University child sex abuse scandal that came to light in 2011.

 

"After the Sandusky thing at Penn State, more and more colleges started considering it [minor and child abuse clearances]," said Moore.

 

Moore understands this reasoning, but feels that the required clearances associated with minors undermines some basic rights to innocence. "It's almost as if you're presumed guilty until you demonstrate your innocence rather than the other way around," said Moore.

 

Coldwell expressed similar concerns. "I feel that all of us are paying the price for the debacle at Penn State,” Coldwell said. “It [completing child abuse clearances] is not adhering to our constitutional guarantee that all Americans are innocent until proven guilty; this is assuming guilt or potential guilt, and guess what? I am not a criminal."

 

There also seems to be distress among faculty about the requirement to complete the FBI Fingerprint Check.

 

"I can understand the criminal record check, that makes sense, you don’t want any criminals teaching your children,” said Coldwell, “but the fingerprinting, that is really forcing people who have committed no crime other than maybe a driving violation to be fingerprinted. That's a real invasion of privacy…[and] it says that the people who are forced to be fingerprinted are extremely likely to commit a crime."

 

Both Moore and Tim Swift, Ph.D., associate professor of management, pointed out that the clearances were an inconvenience to the faculty that took time out of their day.

 

"The web-based stuff was a breeze,” Swift said, “but just the fingerprint stuff was a drag…there was a long line of faculty members that were waiting and I waited much longer than I thought."

 

There are also fees that must be paid when completing each clearance. The PA Criminal Record Check and PA Child Abuse Check both cost $10 and the FBI Fingerprint Check costs $25.75. Each employee required to have such clearances must personally pay these fees up-front.

 

However, according to the HR website, all employees (full-time, part-time, and temporary) are eligible to be reimbursed within two weeks for these fees so long as the employee submits their three completed background checks along with their receipts for each to the Office of Human Resources.

 

Despite this reimbursement though, Coldwell expressed that for some, paying a total of approximately $45 up front may be difficult. "That [paying up front] is tough for adjuncts who teach at more than one place and perhaps have to do this for more than one school," Coldwell said. "It's an inconvenience; I don’t like having to pay up front for something I’m being forced to do."

 

There may be mixed feelings about the hassles of the new background check policy requirements, but many still seem to be happy that there is at least some level of examination in place.

 

"We might be overdoing it a little bit by having every single employee getting a background check when really very, very few of us interact with minors," said Swift. "But on the whole, I'm glad we're doing it because I think making St. Joe's a safer environment, particularly for our students, is always a good thing."