Criminal background checks waived for some student employees at Pa. state universities

Some student employees who work jobs at the 10 state universities would be exempted from the Pennsylvania’s State System of Higher Education’s criminal background check policy.

The system’s governing board on Thursday approved the policy change that carves out student employees who have no direct contact and/or routine contact with minors during the course of their work.

Randy Goin, the system’s deputy chancellor, said the criminal background clearance requirement was hurting students on work study who depended on those jobs as part of their financial aid package to help cover their tuition.

“We might have a student who is working for one semester, stocking books at bookstores or working in a dining hall,” Goin said. “If their background checks take two to three months to be finished, they could very well miss a half-semester of work study, a half semester of financial aid potentially derailing their progress.”

The system’s policy had required background checks for all employees and official volunteers while the state law puts that requirement only on employees who have direct contact with minors. Goin said that presented a challenge for some student employees who don’t have contact with minors.

The policy was put in place in response to a 2014 state law that was among those enacted in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal to bolster child protection in Pennsylvania. It was tweaked in 2015 to narrow the universe of individuals who had to get background clearances to only those who worked around children.

But the State System System officials said the broad policy erred on the side of caution to protect minors who on its campuses for sports and academic camps, campus visits, and classes. It made background checks a requirement with disciplinary action taken against those who failed to get one. The faculty union felt that was an overreach but was unsuccessful in a court battle to get the policy reversed.

The policy change applies to students who attend Cheyney, East Stroudsburg, Indiana, Kutztown, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester universities, as well as Commonwealth University with campuses at Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield and Pennsylvania Western University with campuses at California, Clarion and Edinboro.