As Penn faces the possibility of becoming the first Ivy League university to require self-disclosure statements from prospective faculty members about their criminal backgrounds, it remains unseen what, if any, impact the issue will have on faculty recruitment.
Asking prospective faculty for self-disclosure is a growing but relatively recent trend, making it difficult to evaluate the policy's potential impact.
Penn is considering self-disclosure as part of its hiring-practices review, initiated last January with the news that a graduate student and two other members of the University's staff were convicted sex offenders.
Yet as the Faculty Senate deliberates the issue, it is unknown what role self-disclosure could play in deterring prospective applicants from applying.
Reaching a "balance" between addressing prior criminal convictions while "not imposing undue hardship on the University in terms of the recruitment of new faculty members" is something that the Senate Faculty committee is examining, Provost Ron Daniels said.
While the prospect of a self-disclosure policy discouraging candidates from applying for a faculty position at Penn remains a concern, there is little evidence to suggest it would.
Whether self-disclosure will effect the University's ability to recruit new faculty would be "speculative," Faculty Senate Chairman Larry Gladney said.
"There exist other colleges with self-disclosure policies, but we don't have the information," on its recruiting impact, he added.
The University of Wisconsin instated a self-disclosure and background-check policy for potential faculty members last spring, after the university discovered that three professors were convicted felons.
Wisconsin also considered the issue of faculty recruitment before requiring disclosure and background checks, but says the policy is too new to evaluate its effect.
"It remains too early to tell" whether the policy impacts the recruitment of faculty, University of Wisconsin-Madison Human Resources Director Mark Walters said.
The extent to which faculty recruitment may be affected at Penn hinges on the decisions made by the Faculty Senate on how the issue will be handled.
"It's hard to know whether this will have a negative effect on recruitment," said Jonathan Knight, director of the department of Academic Freedom, Tenure and Governance for the American Association of University Professors. "But it all depends on what you're being asked to sign and how the administration administers it."
