Tuesday, August 05, 2003

By Bill Schackner, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Starting this fall, faculty applying to Penn State University must show not only what they've published and how they'd teach but also whether they've spent time in prison.

After a recent revelation that one of its faculty was a paroled triple murderer, the state's largest public university says it plans to institute a system of criminal background checks for all new faculty hires.

The system will cover two dozen campuses where some 83,000 students are enrolled, though details of how it will work are still being developed, officials said yesterday.

Other universities in Pennsylvania are looking at the issue, too.

The State System of Higher Education is talking about whether a system-wide policy makes sense for the 14 state universities, among them California, Clarion, Edinboro, Indiana and Slippery Rock in Western Pennsylvania.

Duquesne University says it also is discussing the subject.

"Recent news has made us mindful of the need for effective background checks, and our policies are under review to determine if they can be improved," spokesman David Mastovich said yesterday.

Penn State says it was exploring the feasibility of such a system with other Big Ten schools even before learning that assistant education professor Paul Krueger, employed at the university since 1999, had been convicted for the 1965 murders of three fishermen near Corpus Christi, Texas.

Like most universities, Penn State has not asked teaching applicants about past criminal offenses. The university says it only learned of Krueger's background in the last several weeks, though he worked at University Park for four years and was director of the Institute for Research in Training and Development.

Krueger, well-liked by students and colleagues, resigned from Penn State on Friday after he and the university agreed it was no longer practical for him to remain in the position, campus officials said. Krueger, now 55, was a teenager when he was convicted in the triple shootings and sentenced to life in prison.

He was paroled in 1979 and since has held various positions in academia and the corporate world.

He did not respond to requests for comment after news of his conviction surfaced.

Nationwide, there is growing discussion about whether colleges should adopt, for faculty searches, a screening tool that long has been standard in much of the employment world.

Those advocating the checks cite safety issues and liability. Others not keen on the idea say they are worried about potential abuses.

Though it has taken no official position, the American Association of University Professors says it is monitoring the Penn State case and the national debate.

An attorney for the group based in Washington, D.C., wondered yesterday whether schools imposing checks will make proper distinctions between types of offenses.

"Should a youthful drug use offense bar somebody from getting a faculty appointment? What about a ticket for reckless driving?" asked staff counsel Donna Euben. "What about someone who has filed for bankruptcy? Should that preclude somebody from teaching American literature?"

If criminal checks are applied to younger faculty applicants but not older ones, or if minority candidates are screened but not whites, then "it may, in fact, create more of a liability," Euben said.

State System Chancellor Judy Hample said her administrators began looking at the idea in recent days after inquiries from members of the board of governors, who had read news accounts about Krueger's case.

State Rep. Matthew Baker, R-Tioga, who also is a State System board member, is among them. He said he sees value in conducting background checks, not only on applicants for classroom positions but for government employees statewide.

He alluded to requirements already in place covering day care and public school workers.

"I believe government has a right to limit the exposure and risk to the public," he said. "I think it's the government's right to ask the question if a person is going to be paid a government salary and taxpayers' money is going to be used."

Such checks should probably attempt to identify not only state offenses but also employ federal reporting systems that can track crimes committed in others states, he said.

Sheldon Steinbach, a lawyer in Washington, D.C., who has followed the issue, said he believes colleges are moving generally toward more background checks of all kinds after lagging behind industry for years.

He said the decision by Penn State, one of the nation's largest universities, has implications beyond its own network of campuses.

"The school's size and the uniqueness of the case provide a national prominence that will cause other [schools] that might not have thought about the issue to raise it on their own campuses," said Steinbach, general counsel for the American Council on Education.

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