Task force to review U. hiring practices

The administration will set up a task force to review the University's hiring practices, particularly policies on background checks on job applicants, Manager of Staff Relations Wanda Whitted said Friday. Three key members of the as-yet unformed committee refused to say if the review is a response to the August 26 arrest of a University housekeeper for allegedly raping a co-worker in a Hill House lounge. The housekeeper, Warren Timbers, 36, of North Philadelphia had a prior conviction for rape in 1974, Assistant District Attorney Richard Green said last week. University officials would not discuss specifics about Timbers or the circumstances of his case Friday. But students last week contradicted administration reports about who was living in Hill House at the time of the incident. Director of Residential Living Gigi Simeone said last week that no undergraduates were living in Hill House when the alleged attack occurred. But College freshman Mark Lo Sasso said yesterday that he and approximately 20 other members of the pre-freshman program had moved into their rooms in Hill House that day. "It is kind of scary that something like this could happen," Lo Sasso said. Whitted said the task force will explore what the University can do within the limits of the law to screen job applicants. "We want to know if we are doing all that we can possibly do," Whitted said. The University currently asks all job applicants if they have been convicted of a crime in the last 10 years. The hiring officer for each given position uses his or her own discretion about what information to follow up and how many references to check. Whitted said the University has no specific policy about the number or type of references which should be checked, adding that the policies apply to everyone from secretaries to maintenance people to managers. The law does not allow employers to eliminate categorically job applicants with a criminal record, Associate General Counsel Neil Hamburg said Friday. Each case must be examined individually and an employer has to prove the conviction is relevant to the job opening, Whitted said. Hamburg said, for example, if the person had been convicted of burglary and is applying to be treasurer of the University, then it could be considered relevant to employment. But if a person applying for the same job has a criminal record for fleeing the state to avoid making child support payments, it would not be considered relevant. "There are clear areas and there are gray areas," Hamburg said. If a hiring officer wants to follow up on the applicant's criminal record, the state police can do a background check, Whitted said. But University Police Commissioner John Kuprevich said Friday this sort of check often takes weeks or even months to be completed. The University has had problems with employees with criminal records in the past. Two years ago, a man hired by McGinn Security to guard Van Pelt College House was found to have a lengthy criminal record after he was arrested for disorderly conduct while on duty. Then-Residential Living Director Carol Kontos-Cohen said at the time the University would end its relationship with McGinn if it could not guarantee clean records for dorm guards. McGinn was recontracted a year later.

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