A sign of things to come in college

Tell your kids that big brother is watching.

By Kathy Boccella
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — Along with SAT scores and extra-curricular activities, college-bound students increasingly are being asked to divulge information that may not be so flattering: their arrest and discipline records.
Since late summer, the Common Application, a form used by about 300 institutions, has asked students and guidance counselors whether the applicant has ever been convicted of a crime or disciplined at school.
Kids with rocky pasts may not make it beyond 12th grade.
In an effort to weed out troublemakers before they hit campus, colleges with their own forms also are requiring prospective students to disclose behavioral black marks. More are contemplating it.
The University of Pennsylvania put its admissions policy under review after the discovery in January that a 25-year-old child molester taking graduate courses was commuting from his Bucks County, Pa., prison cell. Saint Joseph’s University will ask about applicants’ misdeeds beginning next year.
“It’s an issue that’s exploding,” said Timothy Mann, dean of student affairs at Babson College, who is writing his doctoral dissertation on the subject.
The debate over whether to screen and for what is contentious. Opponents cite privacy issues and the risk of penalizing offenders twice. Education encourages rehabilitation, argues the United States Student Association, the nation’s largest student group.
“Are we now putting institutions of higher education in the position of dispensing post-judicial punishment?” Barmak Nassirian of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers asked.
Offenders can still slip in. “No background check is foolproof,” cautioned Stephanie Hughes, a professor at the University of Northern Kentucky and security expert who owns RiskAware, which runs background checks on college employees.
Federal law prevents most schools from releasing educational records — including disciplinary information — without a parental approval. Counselors can leave the questions blank, a spokesman for the Common Application said. And schools don’t always know about the trouble students get into off campus.

 

Liability. Is there any other reason anybody does anything like this?

 

How about because they can?

I have absolutely zero problem with a criminal record being something which must be put out there on the table. You do the crime...

 

Consequences for your actions. What a revolutionary concept. : :

 

I gots no problem with this.

 

A college asking for your criminal/police record when you apply, I've got no problem with that.

I thought your disciplinary record was part of your "permanent record" that got shipped off to colleges anyway ;D

 

I think your disciplinary record is part of the transcript. The other could be viewed as an invasion of privacy especially since you're talking about minors.

 

Since most juvenile records are sealed by the court, wouldn't the applicant be under no obligation to reveal his/her past crimes?

 

Will there be a lawsuit when some kid gets declined admission because he was in a fight or had an MIP, but Joe Runningback with his three arrests is welcomed with open arms?

 

I think the first lawsuit will be over a kid not revealing an arrest that was sealed by the court.

 

What is an MIP?

 

Minor in Possession (of booze).