The University Senate on Wednesday urged Syracuse University’s central administration to temporarily hold off on enforcing a new criminal background check policy for faculty until senators have reviewed it.

Senator Robert Van Gulick proposed the idea during the Senate’s Wednesday meeting. His motion passed with 76% of senators supporting the measure.

The action came after the Senate Committee on Academic Freedom, Tenure and Professional Ethics detailed “serious concerns” about the policy’s implementation.

“I’m sorry to say we do not approve of the current policy,” said Matthew Cleary, the committee’s chair.

AFTPE wrote a letter to Interim Provost John Liu earlier this month expressing four main objections to the policy, which went into effect Jan. 1:

• The policy doesn’t allow for “any form” of faculty participation in the background check process, Cleary said, and employment offers could be rescinded without a hiring department being involved.

• The policy seems to suggest that SU will start to perform background checks on current faculty, he said. “This is something we were never even asked to consider as a possibility,” Cleary said. 

• There’s no appeals process under the policy, he said, for hiring departments or job candidates.

• AFTPE had advised SU to seek Senate approval for the policy, but that didn’t happen, Cleary said.

Cleary said he and Liu are planning to meet next week to discuss the issue. A university spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter late Wednesday. 

Former Provost Michele Wheatly announced the new policy in a campus-wide email in September. AFTPE was surprised by the email, Cleary said.

AFTPE had provided recommendations on the proposed policy in spring 2019 after the committee was asked to advise the provost on the idea last school year, according to Cleary. 

But between a Senate meeting in April and Wheatly’s message, Cleary said AFTPE had no communication with the provost’s office about the policy.

“We never saw or commented on the policy,” Cleary said. “We were concerned that it didn’t address most of our recommendations, even though the announcement was written in a way that seemed to suggest otherwise.”

Cleary also told senators that AFTPE had thought SU would only be checking for prior felony convictions under the policy. But the policy says SU will check for both felony and misdemeanor convictions, he said.

The committee has “no clarity” on how information about misdemeanor convictions might be used or interpreted by the administration, he said.

Senator Margaret Susan Thompson said charges related to civil disobedience and offenses that can be “politicized” are typically misdemeanors.

“I strongly agree that the Senate should be allowed to deliberate” she said.

Published on January 29, 2020 at 11:09 pm

Contact Sam: sfogozal@syr.edu | @SamOgozalek