GINA and Preemployment Criminal Background Checks (Essays) (Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act‪)‬

One day in the spring of 2009, the Rules Committee of The University of Akron Board of Trustees made a small but significant addition to a new "Employee Background Review Policy" that the university administration had proposed. The policy, modeled on an Ohio law requiring criminal background checks for all K--12 public school employees in Ohio, would require blanket criminal background checks for all prospective UA employees, excluding student employees. (1) The board added an additional requirement unique to standard criminal record policies: "at discretion of the University of Akron, any applicant may be asked to submit fingerprints or DNA sample for purpose of a federal criminal background check." (2) This new policy was approved by the board and enacted on August 30, 2009. As per university policy, the rule was passed without faculty review and went largely unnoticed until adjunct instructor Matt Williams, vice president of New Faculty Majority, a national coalition advocating on behalf of part-time and adjunct faculty, resigned in protest on October 24, 2009, triggering local, national, and international news coverage. An editorial in the Akron Beacon Journal protested that "the swab-for-a-job plan at UA represents a unique and unwarranted intrusion into personal privacy and raises potent discrimination issues," (3) and on October 28th the American Civil Liberties Union issued a press release declaring its outrage over the idea that employers might consider themselves "entitled to our most private, personal genetic information." (4) On November 5, 2009, The University of Akron faculty senate--citing privacy and legal concerns, questioning the breadth of the DNA sample requirement, and emphasizing the threat it poses to the reputation of the university--passed a resolution requesting that the board of trustees reconsider the new provisions. Also on November 5, 2009, the university's Office of General Counsel stated it would recommend that rule 3359-11-22 (B)(3) be amended to read: