Coming clean

From The Courier:


Arkansas Tech University is now among the growing number of colleges and universities across the country which use undergraduate admissions applications to inquire whether students have ever been convicted of any crime other than a minor traffic violation and whether they have any criminal charges pending against them.
At a special meeting Tuesday, Tech’s board of trustees approved an amendment to add four “Campus Safety Questions” to the university’s application for undergraduate admission.
The amendment states “To maintain a safe learning community, we ask the following of all applicants. We cannot accept your application unless you answer these questions. Your ‘yes’ answer will not necessarily preclude your being admitted. However, failure to provide complete, accurate, and truthful information will be grounds to deny or withdraw admission, or to dismiss after enrollment.”
The questions, which according to Tech officials will be added to applications during the next scheduled printing, are as follows:
Have you ever been convicted of, or pleaded no contest to, a crime other than a minor traffic violation?
Do you have any criminal charges pending against you?
Have you ever been expelled, dismissed, suspended, or placed on probation by any other school, college, or university?
n If you have ever served in the military, did you receive any type of discharge other than an honorable discharge?
The amendment further states, “You must promptly notify the Admissions Office of any criminal charge, any disposition of a criminal charge, or any school, college, or university disciplinary action against you, or any type of military discharge other than an honorable discharge that occurs at any time after you submit this document.”
On previous applications for admission, the only question of this nature was “Have you ever been convicted of a felony?” The question further instructed any students answering in the affirmative to attach a separate sheet explaining their answer.
Many private and some public colleges and universities across the country use the Common Application, a mainly online form that asks, “Have you ever been convicted of a misdemeanor, felony, or other crime?”
Admissions applications for most public colleges and universities in the state, including the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith, the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, ask whether prospective students have been convicted of a felony.
The University of Arkansas-Fayetteville and Henderson State University in Arkadelphia ask about felony convictions, but also inquire whether students have been subject to disciplinary action while attending another school or university. UAF also asks prospective students to disclose information about misdemeanor convictions.
The admission application for Arkansas State University asks prospective students whether they are convicted sex offenders.
Holly Dickson, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Arkansas, wrote in an e-mail to The Courier there are several problems with the amendment to Tech’s admissions application.
She wrote Tech’s proposed questions “do not appear to be narrowly tailored to further the stated goal of ‘campus safety’ but instead capture a lot of information that would not be relevant to campus safety.”
Dickson also expressed concern about how the university will use the information, how such information will be safeguarded and how the privacy of students who choose to answer the questions will be protected.
“There are no protections,” she wrote, “to protect the privacy of this information once it is submitted to the university, and no protections against the misuse of the information.”
Dickson further stated, “In Arkansas, you must have a release signed by an individual or be a law enforcement officer acting with an official purpose to obtain criminal history information. Some juvenile dispositions are sealed, and other criminal histories expunged. The proposal does not address those issues.”
It’s unclear what kind of crimes and misdemeanors might warrant denial of admission or dismissal after enrollment at Tech.
When asked to respond to issues raised by Dickson, Susie Nicholson, assistant to Tech President Dr. Robert Brown, wrote in an e-mail the questions which will be added to the application “are tailored to safety concerns and follow closely to those asked on other campuses” and any information obtained “will be used in reviewing student applications” and “will be safeguarded in a similar fashion to all other student records.”
When asked whether the university is looking for particular behaviors or patterns of behavior, Tech officials stated, “Yes, we are looking for those behaviors that would result in an affirmative answer to one of the questions.”