Not in response to UMC stabbing
Beginning Dec. 1, CU will require background checks from providers like Sterling Check for all full-time and part-time faculty and staff.
“This is actually an expansion and modification of existing policy,” Human Resources Director Candice Bowen said. “It’s a work in progress.”
The policy concerns all faculty throughout campus, including students with “security-sensitive” positions – more specifically, anyone who has supervising roles or access to certain buildings around campus. Beyond this, club sports coaches, childcare employees and club supervisors.
“This is to make sure we’re being prudent with the people we’re hiring as well as being cautious of people in positions of authority,” said John Meyer, associate director of programs at the Student Recreation Center.
With the new policy, background checks will not be handled by the CU Police Department as they have been the past several years. Instead, Human Resources will manage all background checks.
“The move to Human Resources is for several reasons: to insure greater consistency across campus, shorten the process, to protect confidentiality and increase confidentiality,” Bowen said.
As with the old policy, a third-party company, HireRight, will handle all background checks, and pass along the information to Human Resources.
Although these changes were made with increasing public safety in mind, they were not a response to the slashing incident at the UMC earlier this year.
“We had a policy before the incident [concerning background checks], we’re just changing the procedures,” Bowen said.
That policy, which is being revised, was implemented July 1. The policy’s goal is to: “Provide requirements and guidelines for the administration of background checks with respect for security-sensitive positions and for officers and individuals being hired in tenured and tenure-track faculty positions,” according to the CU Web site.
The new policy will not require existing employees to go through checks for a second time. However, any employees whose duties change or receive a promotion will need to complete a more up-to-date background check.
To find more information on this and other CU policies, go to:
CU’s Administrative Policy Statements Web site.
Contact Campus Press staff writer Devon Taylor at devon.taylor.edu.
