Verification and Trust: Background Investigations Preceding Faculty Appointment

Autor/inn/en	Finkin, Matthew W.; Post, Robert C.; Thomson, Judith J.
Titel	Verification and Trust: Background Investigations Preceding Faculty Appointment
Quelle	In: Academe, 90 (2004) 2, S.113-114 (2 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0190-2946
Schlagwörter	Investigations; Court Litigation; Ethics; Terrorism; College Faculty; Trust (Psychology); Personnel Selection; Teacher Background; Criminals; Databases; United States + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Untersuchung; Rechtsstreit; Ethik; Terrorismus; Fakultät; Personalauswahl; Personalentscheidung; Straftäter; Datenbank; USA
Abstract	Many employers in the United States have responded to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, by initiating or expanding policies requiring background checks of prospective employees. Their ability to perform such checks has been abetted by the growth of computerized databases and of commercial enterprises that facilitate access to personal information. Employers now have ready access to public information that had previously been difficult to collect without an expenditure of considerable effort and money--criminal records, litigation history, worker compensation claims, marriage records, bankruptcy liens, court judgments, and more. They also have ready access to private information--credit-card history, airline use, certain telephone records and bank-account histories, pharmacy records, and even records of medical visits. Inquiry into either type of information by a third party is commonly understood to be an intrusion upon an individual's privacy. There are few legal limits on access to these data (outside of criminal records), and it appears that the potential for promiscuous--or voyeuristic--investigation is limited only by an employer's concern for expense and ethics. Higher education has not been immune to this siren call for background information. Legislation mandating background checks for all employees of certain public institutions (which may include all or some of public higher education) has been adopted in at least one state. Because universities and colleges are now considering extensive and intrusive background checks with an urgency that seems quite out of proportion to the actual problems facing the academy, the AAUP's Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure appointed a subcommittee to consider the question of the standards that should guide academic institutions in the implementation of background checks. This report does not assess the procedures that accompany the informal forms of reference checking that are now commonly applied to candidates for ordinary faculty positions, but instead addresses the very different concerns for fairness and accuracy that arise when institutions of higher education seek to conduct extensive background investigations of sensitive information, including criminal records. (Contains 5 endnotes.) (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	American Association of University Professors, 1012 Fourteenth Street, NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20005-3465. Tel: 202-737-5900; Fax: 202-737-5526; e-mail: academe@aaup.org.
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10