Background Checks Q&A

Being a Fair Chance employer means The University of Chicago allows all candidates a fair opportunity to apply and be considered for positions at our institution. The University does not automatically exclude applicants for employment or other positions because of their history of involvement with the criminal legal system.

Having one or more criminal convictions does not automatically mean that you can’t get a job at the University of Chicago. The University identifies the best possible candidate for a position, then determine whether that person’s conviction history, if any, is substantially related to the position in question. The full reference and background check policy can be found here.

Background checks are performed after the interview process and only after a conditional offer of employment is made and accepted by the candidate. Candidates must provide authorization for the University to perform a background check and they cannot begin employment until the background check has been successfully completed.

It is very important that applicants include all requested information about their background, including whether or not they have been convicted of a crime, including misdemeanors and felonies, but not including minor traffic offenses. Arrests that did not lead to conviction and sealed or expunged conviction records do not need to be disclosed. Providing incomplete, inaccurate, or false information about your background will disqualify you from employment. As a reminder, background checks are performed after the interview process and only after a conditional offer of employment is made and accepted by the candidate.

The University requires all candidates for staff positions (benefits eligible, non-benefits eligible and temporary) who have accepted a contingent offer of employment to undergo a third-party background check prior to their official hiring.

The background check always includes a criminal conviction history and registered sex offender status check, and academic or vocation credential verification. It may also include employment verification, professional license and certification verification, or other job-related information. In limited circumstances where the role requires it, the background check may include a credit history check and motor vehicle record check. In most cases, a criminal history check includes information from the past seven years. In some cases, information older than seven years (e.g., relevant motor vehicle history or sex offender information) may be considered.

Please see our Policy on the Safety of Children in University Programs

An external company conducts the background checks on behalf of the University of Chicago. Candidates who have accepted an offer of employment from the University of Chicago will receive an email with instructions on how to provide consent and supply information for the background check.

Applicants are required to provide their current name, previous names for the last seven years, social security number, date of birth, current address, and previous addresses for the last seven years. Applicants will be required to provide information about previous felony and misdemeanor convictions; however, they are not required to disclose convictions that have been sealed or expunged or arrests that did not lead to convictions.

Personal information is collected by an external company through its secure, fully encrypted website. It is regulated by federal and state laws designed to protect your privacy. To ensure your privacy, you will create a unique login identifier and password to initiate the background check process.

The Associate Vice President and CHRO of Human Resources (or designee), in consultation with the Office of Legal Counsel, when necessary, evaluates the relevance of the applicant’s criminal history to the position being filled on a case-by case basis. In addition to the relevance of the offense to the particular job, the University will consider the nature and severity of the offense and its relationship to the safety and security of others, the number of convictions, the facts or circumstances surrounding the conviction(s), the proximity in time of the conviction, the age of the applicant at the time of the conviction, and any evidence of rehabilitation efforts. For example, a person with driving-related offenses such as a DUI may be disqualified from a position that requires driving, but the conviction may not be relevant for an applicant for a clerical role. Additionally, providing incomplete, inaccurate, or false information about your background will disqualify you from employment.

In some cases. Human Resources may approve the hire with no further action from you. If there are questions about the information in your background check, a representative of Human Resources may interview you to better understand the results, such as the facts and circumstances of the conviction. It is especially important to be fully transparent about these circumstances during this conversation.

Like other background check information, being in a diversion program, on pretrial supervision, parole, or probation is not an automatic bar to employment and circumstances will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

The background check report is maintained in a confidential file separate from the employee’s personnel file and/or separate from any student file. The only data and information that the hiring manager will receive concerning an applicant's criminal history is whether the investigation on the applicant yielded satisfactory or unsatisfactory results – in other words, the hiring manager will not be informed of your criminal history information.

If your University employment ends and you are re-hired within 12 months of completing a background check, a new background check will not be required.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act and the Illinois Human Rights law grants you the right to dispute the results of your background check. The University will provide you complete information and instructions about how to dispute the background check results and request a copy of your background check results.

Generally, the University of Chicago’s current practice is to conduct background checks once at the time of hire.