The University will now require all new hires to undergo a background check.

“This is something that we have been thinking about for a while,” said Maureen Parks, associate vice president for human resources. “Sometime after the first of the year, President (Robert) Easter and Chancellor (Phyllis) Wise asked us to take a serious look at this and to implement changes to our background check policy.”

Previously, the University only performed background checks on hires that were in “sensitive” situations: working with children, firearms, University funds or medical patients.

This change came as a result of a trend throughout higher education, including a number of Big Ten universities. Indiana updated its background check policy to include all faculty and staff in September, Iowa and Michigan updated in November, while Penn State updated its policy in February 2013. 

Parks said this trend is due partly to the Penn State scandal involving former football coach Jerry Sandusky.

“In the private sector, it has been very common for 15-to-20 years to background check anyone who is offered a job,” Parks said. “(Background checks) haven’t been as common in higher education, but after Sandusky, it has started to be the direction that we are moving in.”

The policy, which started to develop in 2012, will work its way through various bodies of University governance next academic year, Parks said. 

Recently, the issue of background checks has been widely discussed after reports by various media outlets highlighted the criminal history of University instructor James Kilgore, who served time for second-degree murder before working at the University. While Kilgore did not undergo a background check when he was hired, Kilgore said he has “been scrupulous” about ensuring that his criminal background was fully disclosed during the hiring process. Kilgore’s contract was terminated by the University following the media reports. 

Parks said the University was in the process of changing its background check policy prior to the incident involving Kilgore.

Concern about background checks was also discussed at the Urbana-Champaign Senate meeting on Monday.

“Just in the terms of the general concern of whether we are being hired and retained on the basis of performance and academic competence, that sort of bothered me,” LAS representative Carol Leff said. 

MaryCate can be reached at [email protected].