An Ithaca College committee analyzing the need for background checks on potential employees has not reconvened or made a recommendation after nearly a year of research.

College officials say no clear choice has presented itself.

The Ithacan reported Nov. 17 that a former college employee with a prior criminal record had stolen more than $33,000 from the college. Two weeks later, the paper reported that Sodexho, the college’s dining services provider, had employed a convicted rapist at the college.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), made up of more than 205,000 human resource professionals, urges employers to use background checks, especially for positions dealing with money and security.

Of the 23 Associated New American Colleges, a grouping of similar-sized colleges and universities, 12 reported performing background checks for all or some positions. An additional two, including Ithaca College, reported considering the issue. Three are not performing checks, nor are they considering it. Six members did not return calls.

Judy Drake, president of SHRM in Tompkins County, said most local members currently perform background checks, both by choice and by law.

“SHRM wants all employers to use background checks, mainly because we find them very valuable, especially during recruitment,” Drake said.

According to a 2004 survey by SHRM, 54 percent of criminal- record checks always or sometimes found an inconsistency with information provided by the applicant. The top-five discrepancies, all applicable to current college employment positions, included driving records, certifications and licenses, dates of previous employment and former job responsibilities.

A number of issues surround a possible policy on background checks, including cost, accuracy, liability and applicant privacy. The college must also decide what positions, if any, would benefit from checks, how and when they would be completed, and what information found, if any, would be relevant to the hiring process.

Current policy

The college currently relies on a process of interviewing and checking references to select the best candidate for a position, said Nancy Pringle, college attorney. Sworn sheriffs and security officers are the only college employees currently subjected to background checks. The process is part of their law enforcement certification.

Outside vendors do not have to follow the same hiring practices as the college. For example, Sodexho, the largest supplier of non- college employees, does not currently run background checks and declined to comment about whether references are thoroughly checked.

Sodexho employed a Class 3, or high-threat, sex offender, Tyrone Fair of Ithaca, up until last spring in the Campus Center Dining Hall. Fair was convicted in May 1982 for rape in the first degree.

The college told The Ithacan in mid-December it had formed an informal committee to research the need for pre-employment background checks. Pringle said no particular incident prompted the review. “I cannot think of an instance, that, if we had done a background check, we would have picked up on x, y or z,” said Pringle, who has been employed by the college for 12 years.

Vicki Estabrook, director of employment and employee relations, said, to date, the hiring process has served the college “relatively well,” but added it is possible someone with a prior conviction could be employed by the college.

Both Estabrook and Pringle said the college has no intention of running background checks on students.

A limited scope

Reference checks often add very little to the hiring process, Drake said.

Employers are primarily fearful of giving bad recommendations because they don’t want to be sued for slander.

“You can always get a good reference on a good employee, but if there were issues at a past workplace, it’s hard to get that from a reference call,” Drake said. “People don’t want to say something about an employee, only to have them come back with a lawsuit, saying ‘I didn’t get this job because of you.’”

Because employers are weary of the legal ramifications, many have opted to provide only limited reference checks, Drake said. Limited checks include the title, dates of employment and sometimes a general grade of performance, such as excellent, satisfactory or unsatisfactory, but even that is risky, she said.

A reference-checking policy is also limited because, typically, applicants only provide the names of people they know are going to give a good recommendation. Drake said calling past supervisors that aren’t listed as references can help, but added that background checks remain a better option, both legally and professionally.

“You’re trying to get the best candidate for a position,” she said. “And with reference checking, you’re not getting all the pros and cons of the person.”

College could be liable

When David L. Speller, former assistant of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, was hired in 2000, the college was unaware of his prior criminal record. Three years later, Speller pled guilty to grand larceny in the fourth degree after stealing more than $33,000 from the college.

The college can be held liable for what it knew or should have known about an employee under a common law known as negligent hiring. A common law is regulation stemming from civil court precedent. Joel Goldberg is the president of Aurico Reports Inc., a national pre-employment background-checking company. He said if the college hired an employee, and that employee physically, mentally or emotionally harmed someone else, and they had a prior history of that activity, the college would be considered negligent.

“Let’s say you have an RA [resident assistant] in a hall who has been convicted of some sort of physical abuse in the past,” Goldberg said. “Now that RA, who no one did a background check on, physically abuses another person, say, a student. The school is negligent.”

Goldberg said civil settlements for negligent hiring currently average about $500,000, while civil actions in the court system average about $3 million.

“What’s a better investment for the college? A $50-$100 background check on some or all employees, or a $3 million lawsuit?” Goldberg said.

A right to privacy?

From an employee’s perspective, background checks are often inaccurate and overly invasive, said Tena Friery, research director of Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a national non-profit consumer advocacy organization. While background checks run through third-party companies are regulated under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, checks done by employers in-house have no restrictions.

“There is a lot of information out there, especially on the Internet, that people may not know exists that an employer could find,” Friery said. “And employers may use that information when making a hiring decision and leave the applicant with no way to fight the decision.”

If the college were to use a third-party company to conduct checks, it must follow notification and consent procedures outlined in the FCRA. Those procedures include notifying applicants of a check, receiving their permission to run the check, giving them a copy of the check and notifying them if they were not hired because of information found in the check.

Information must directly apply to a desired position in order to be considered in the hiring process. For example, it is legal to turn down an applicant for a financial position based on a bad credit report. But it would be illegal to turn down an applicant for a janitorial position.

The same is true for criminal history. A prior conviction must somehow relate to the desired position for it to be taken into account, but unlike credit history, the scope of a conviction is more difficult to define.

Despite the laws, Friery said, applicants remain relatively powerless to challenge a decision.

“Employers can simply say another applicant was more qualified, and those turned down have basically no rights,” she said. “The laws, while important, are virtually unenforceable.”

Estabrook said background checks eliminate conversation between the employer and applicant, which does not benefit the hiring process.

“There’s no doubt a background check is invasive,” she said. “Most employers don’t take the process any further than they have to, but it also often depends on what negative experiences the employer may have had in the past.”

Slow to act

Despite the clear benefits of conducting background checks, Goldberg said, colleges and universities have been slow to follow the rest of the business world in creating new policies.

According to the SHRM survey, 82% of respondents said their organization sometimes or always performed a criminal record check.

“People in academia tend to think they’re above such things,” Goldberg said. “But in reality, because they’re dealing with students, they should make sure applicants aren’t lying about their educational experience and that they don’t have criminal records.”

Pringle, the college attorney, said the past year has been spent gathering information, talking with professional organizations and attending teleconferences, adding “everyone is holding back waiting for someone to set the pace.”

“It’s still a work in progress, for lack of a better word,” said Pringle, who originally organized the group. “But I expect something might be recommended.”

Estabrook said one reason the higher education industry has been slow to act is because of extensive interview processes.

“Once you get to the reference checking stage, you already know a whole lot about a person,” Estabrook said. “So something unknown isn’t out of the question, but it’s a whole lot less likely.”

Even still, since Sept. 11, 2001, more and more employers, including colleges and universities, have been creating policies on background checks, Estabrook said.

“People are aware of what’s going on in the news and society,” she said. “If there’s a gap in someone’s resume and they can’t explain it, employers are most sensitive to pursuing things like that than they used to be.”

An informal committee formed in 2005 by the Office of Human Resources has spent the last year researching the costs and benefits of pre-employment background checks. Nancy Pringle, college attorney, said she expects a new policy to be recommended.

Cost: Depending on the type of background check completed, prices range from $30–$40 per applicant to $150–$200 per applicant.

Incomplete information: Even a thorough search of national, state and local records leaves gaps in an applicant’s history because of varying record keeping and request procedures.

Liability: The college can be held liable for what it knew or should have known at the time of hiring, but it can also be held liable for using certain information from a background check as a form of discrimination.

Positions: Different positions merit different forms of background checks, and not all information found may be relevant to the hiring decision.

Privacy: The college would benefit from having more information about job applicants. But applicants also have a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Time: Background check searches require compiling data from local, state and national databases, extending the hiring process to between 48 hours and one week.

Do you think the college should do background checks?

“I would have assumed the college does checks, but i don’t think it’s that big of a deal. I guess there are some positions where it might be useful to check criminal records.”

Jessica Dayton ’08, cinema and photography

“The college takes every other precaution to keep students safe, so wouldn’t it make sense for it to do background checks too?”

Ryan Jacobsen ’07, theater production

“Anytime you’re working in a school with people away from home, you should make them feel as safe as possible. Background checks only make sense.”

Jackie McCorry ’07, office assistant for ITS

“It would be a good idea to get more information on people we hire.”

Ken Kleist, Head Facilities Attendant in Towers/Terraces