UNC schools implement background checks

New students to UNC-system schools have jumped more than a few academic hurdles this year.

Prospective students might now undergo a background check before being accepted to any of the 16 campuses.

Last December, the system task force on the safety of the campus community released a set of recommendations designed to help system schools ensure a safer environment for students.

System schools already have put some of the task force’s recommendations into action, including a check of the criminal and educational histories of applicants for the 2005-06 school year.

The task force was created by system President Molly Broad following the deaths of two UNC- Wilmington students last year.

Headed up by Bobby Kanoy, UNC-system senior associate vice president for academic and student affairs, the task force focused on improving the security during and after the admissions process.

Kanoy said significant progress has been made since the recommendations were released. The system has created a database showing students’ educational histories including suspensions and expulsions.

The database allows schools to check and post information on students who have been suspended or expelled from any of the campuses.

Kanoy said some problems could be avoided by training admissions officers to look for those red flags.

“The training programs that we want to develop are not yet put in place,” he said.

Although the number of background checks conducted at the schools differed, many said the new procedures are making all campuses safer.

“We ran 19 criminal background checks this year,” said Stephen Farmer, director of admissions at UNC-Chapel Hill.

He said transfer students, not first-year students were checked this year.

“There are many ways to check first-year students that don’t apply to transfer students,” Farmer said.

A transfer student is considered for investigation when there is incomplete or questionable information on the application.

The background check might lead to further investigation by the dean of students, but Farmer said a potential student has no need to fear a background check.

“No students will ever be rejected based on the criminal background check (alone),” he said.

However, Craig Fulton, director of admissions at UNC-Charlotte, said a handful of the applicants were rejected based on the findings of the background checks.

He said there were 150 background checks out of 15,000 applicants.

Fulton advises students to answer the application honestly. “It’s in the students’ best interest to disclose everything,” he said. “Sometimes students disclose that information to show they’ve cleaned up.”

Lise Keller, director of admissions at UNC-Greensboro, said the college already had enacted precautions similar to the task force’s recommendations a few years ago.

She said the students who were singled out for security reasons this year would have been flagged by standing security processes.

“We generally look for any suspicions that a student could hurt themselves or others,” Keller said.

The task force is meeting Tuesday at 10 a.m. in the General Administration building at UNC-CH to discuss the colleges’ progress in meeting its recommendations.

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.