Criminal background checks

[sneaky or creepy]

The internet is a wonderful thing ;D Did you know that people can usually look up convictions, tickets, arrests, etc. without much information at all? In some sites, they require you to know the birthdate of the individual, but you only need as little as their name and county of their offense (even if it's an alleged offense). In short, people don't need your consent to check your background. It is likely that an SC will ask for your consent before they do it, but there is always a chance that an SC has a wierdo that likes to do their own "detective" work. I say this from experience on an SC. I was once on an SC for a search for an admin position and there was a SC member that liked to use the internet to learn about candidates. This person looked at people's Facebook and Myspace pages, personal websites/blogs, ratemyprof, police records, departmental websites, and I'm sure I'm missing other types of sites this person used. Because all of this is "public" information, the SC member did not need permission to snoop around. Keep in mind though, this is VERY uncommon.

As for whether it is common to do a background check before you are invited for an interview...from my experience interviewing at multiple institutions and as an SC member at a couple institutions, it is rarely done. In fact, it only sort of happened to me once. When I interviewed at a public institution, I had to fill out a consent form for a criminal background check at the same time I was invited to campus. The background check was not completed until after I had interviewed.

[before2]

@before: I was also just invited for an on-campus interview (quite possibly at the same school...) but I was most shocked by some of the questions on the background check form.

They ask about height, weight, hair and eye color. Didn't expect that...

[before]

before2 -- sounds like a different school.

[So were told]

An increasing number of schools are, indeed, doing criminal background checks on finalists -- either immediately prior to interview or immediately prior to an offer. I have no idea whether/how one knows when a background check is being performed.

At my institution, the departments do not have anything to do with this -- nor are they remotely interested. Faculty across the campus protested heavily when these regulations came down from on high. So, revealing DUIs or other "priors" when you apply is not likely to be helpful in anyway. We've been told that there are two things that can get you into trouble here:
(1) lying on a form. So, if you do have a previous conviction, don't sign any forms or check any boxes that say you do not have any convictions.
(2) being convicted of a particular crime that is related to the job for which you are applying. So, an embezzlement conviction would prevent you from getting a job as a university accountant and a violent crime or sexual assault conviction would *probably* prevent you from being hired as a prof. Our administrators tell us that a drug conviction or DUI is NOT likely to interfere with a faculty hire.

So we're told.