By Greg Halbleib
A bill to prohibit criminal backgrounds on college applications concerns Illinois State University Police Chief Aaron Woodruff.
The chief tells WJBC’s Terry James that he agrees with the bill’s intent to give second chances, but colleges and universities need to be able to check who is being admitted.
“We don’t automatically exclude anybody from attending the university,” said Woodruff. “We want to review the facts from each individual case and make that decision. The problem with this bill is we can’t do that.”
Woodruff says of 21,000 applications last year, 350 included admissions of criminal history and very few of those were denied admission for that reason. Still, Woodruff says the university must be able to identify regular offenders.
“One of the things we’re looking at is how recent did it happen and is there a pattern of behavior,” said Woodruff. “We take a look at all of those things, but a simple battery in and of itself isn’t something that prohibits someone from coming to Illinois State.”
Woodruff says he agrees with the bill’s intent to rehabilitate people through education, but ISU already rejects few students due to their criminal history.
“I just think this is going to tie our hands behind our back on certain situations when we don’t need to,” said Woodruff. “We are already providing opportunities for those who really need it.”
Greg Halbleib can be reached at greg@wjbc.com.
