Should Criminal Record Information Be Included For College Applications?
Research suggests that colleges that admit students with criminal histories are no less safe than others.
The New York Times reports.
College Applications That Cross a Line
The Obama administration is rightly urging colleges and universities to re-evaluate how they use criminal-record information in admissions decisions. By asking about criminal convictions on their applications, the schools discourage applicants who are capable of performing academically at college and who present no danger to campus safety. The remedy is to stop asking about these records or at least delay the question until the applicant has received a provisional offer of acceptance.
Research suggests that colleges that admit students with criminal histories are no less safe than others. This makes sense because campus crimes are typically committed by outsiders — or by students who do not have criminal records. Yet colleges have reacted hysterically to a handful of high-profile crimes in recent decades by trying to screen out applicants with criminal convictions.
Comments
By all means, admit students with criminal records. But it will become the college’s legal responsibility to make sure those students don’t waste time and money on careers they can’t enter without clearing a background check. Education and health care are two huge fields that come to mind.
Rape, murder, assault, hate crimes, robbery on campus is disproportionately lower than that experienced off campus. By casting common sense to the way side in short order parity in crime statistics can be achieved between campus and off campus communities.