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| 12/1 Not all student employees at University undergo background checks due to ‘overwhelming’ cost, effort |
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They drive us to class, serve us food and sell us textbooks – they’re student employees of the University.
Food Services and other campus employers may not standardly background check student workers, but University officials say they rarely experience incidents that would necessitate such measures. SEAN TAYLOR/Staff
But the background checks for potential employees vary depending on the campus employer.
“We don’t take anybody that even has a single ticket in their background,” said Ron Hamlin, University Campus Transit System manager.
Campus Transit does a seven-year driving record check of all potential student bus drivers, who must have a background clean of speeding tickets, Hamlin said. Campus Transit’s 130 student bus drivers can’t receive more than two speeding tickets during employment.
“If they get a ticket, they have to report it to us. That’s by federal laws,” he said. “If they’re convicted, they’ll continue with employment.”
After receiving a third ticket, students lose their commercial license and can no longer drive for campus transit, Hamlin said.
Bus driving isn’t the only job at the University that comes with risk.
The more than 1,000 student employees of Food Services prepare meals and operate cash registers at the dining halls and facilities across campus.
“We only background certain members of our student team,” said J. Michael Floyd, director of University Food Services.
Students working in management receive a background check because they drive University vehicles and handle money at the registers, Floyd said. They receive only one when they’re either promoted or hired into a management position.
He said Food Services doesn’t run background checks on students handling food, saying it costs money for each check.
“I think the ability to do a background check on every student employee in the University system would be overwhelming employees,” Floyd said.
Student employees at the University Bookstore, who also work with cash registers, don’t receive a background check, said Jim Dwyer, bookstore director.
The University Bookstore is an affiliate organization of the University, not part of it, so hiring practices differ. More than 200 student employees work at the bookstore each year, including seasonal employees for busier times such as days of home football games.
Background checks aren’t done for seasonal employees, where most student employees begin employment.
“We typically have a graduated hiring process where most of our associates come in as temporary associates,” Dwyer said.
Instead, every associate at the University Bookstore — which is owned by Follett Higher Education Group — is required to complete a code of conduct each year, he said. Dwyer said he isn’t authorized to give specific information about the code of conduct without company permission, but questions to fill out include ones about a harassment-free workplace and integrity in the workplace.
“The gist of it is it’s a standard ethical behavior,” Dwyer said. “We’re not running police background checks on every associate in the store.”
And he has “thankfully” not had problems with students handling money, he said.
“We’ve been very lucky with the people we’ve hired,” Dwyer said.
Floyd said there has not been an instance of students tampering with the food.
“Food Services does everything in their power to provide food for campus in a safe and secure environment,” he said.
Floyd said the University requires employees to report arrests. When asked if an arrest can terminate employment for a student, he said arrests are managed through University Legal Affairs. Any action taken would be based on the department’s advice.
As for Campus Transit, a bus driver arrested on charges of DUI would be an automatic violation, Hamlin said. The employee would not continue driving buses.
Campus Transit also looks at employees’ driving records every year to make sure nobody has a suspended license or “something like that,” Hamlin said.
“I think the average driver is very safe,” he said. “They’re well-qualified. They’re well-trained. They’re well-supervised for the most part. They do their job very well.”
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| Article Date: 11/28/2011 |
| Source: redandblack.com |
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