OUR VIEW: Background checks a necessary protection

    The first week of school can be extremely intimidating. New roommates, new jobs, new classes and new professors require considerable adjustment. Teachers hand out syllabuses and attempt to overwhelm students with the projected heavy workload over the semester. Even if professors seem a little intimidating, at least the fear of a professor being a pedophile, crack-addict or homicidal maniac can be minimized thanks to background checks being instituted by the state.

    A new bill has been passed by the state of Utah that requires new employees at universities to undergo background checks if there is a reasonable cause for concern. This is a great move by the state to protect the safety and privacy of students. The safety of college campuses around the country have been called into question many times due to incidents such as the Virginia Tech massacre. While horrible tragedies like that cannot easily be avoided, keeping students safe from professors with questionable pasts is easily avoidable and necessary.

    Professors have unique relationships with students, often working in close proximity with them. Students deserve the right to feel safe and secure while working with these professors. While a background check cannot prevent a shameful act from occurring, it can weed out potential dangers. The university owes it to the students to protect them and the fact that the university and state are

    This isn’t to say every professor is a sex fiend in hiding. Most professors, like most people, are generally good people with no intent to injure students but universities can never be too careful.

    Perhaps if more universities across the country instituted tougher screening policies, including the all-too-necessary background check, teachers with questionable goals would not sneak through.

    A classic instance of a professor working at a university that should not have, occurred at Brigham Young University. Frank Abagnale Jr., one of the most well-known American con-men, worked at BYU as a teachers assistant, teaching sociology in the 1960s. He faked his credentials and the school bought into the con. Why should they worry about someone trying to fool them? The ’60s were a golden age or innocence right?

    While background checks at the time were not what they are now, even a simple call to the university Abagnale claimed he received a degree from, could have weeded out a professor that was a danger to students. While Abagnale never did anything wrong to the students he taught, he was still teaching without a degree.

    Since the ’60s, background checks have become more complex, accurate and telling. They are simple to perform and with a small fee can tell much about a person.

    We applaud our state legislators for unanimously pushing this measure through and urge university officials to carefully and thoroughly perform background checks on potential new employees.