"At this point we don't know; it may be no problem at all. Let's prevent, that's my main goal," she said.

Dave Buhler, associate commissioner for higher education in Utah, said his office is "okay with the bill," although he did have concerns originally about administrative problems if the checks were required on all faculty and staff.

The bill does have some opposition, however, particularly from a national organization for university professors. Robert Kreiser, senior program officer at the American Association for University Professors, said his group has been fighting against a recent surge of states requiring background checks at colleges and universities.

Those checks, he said, are an invasion of privacy without any indication that there is a problem with ex-convicts on campus.

"When they are done in a blanket fashion with unfettered discretion to impose them, it doesn't indicate some sense of proportion. It raises all kinds of red flags," he said.

Kreiser added that background checks should only be done for very specific positions that warrant them, such as a security officer or a position that handles large amounts of money. Requiring checks for anyone who associates with students under the age of 21 is too wide a net, he said.

"Undertaking such searches is highly invasive of an applicant's privacy and potentially very damaging," a statement by the association reads.

Although the bill does not say how schools would use the information gleaned from the background checks, Menlove said she assumes schools would reserve the right to deny an applicant a position based on what is found during the investigation.

Ultimately, he said, the Board of Regents would have the authority to set the implementation policy.

---

E-mail: estewart@desnews.com