Illinois Bill Would Ban College Application Questions About Criminal History

A new bill in the Illinois General Assembly would ban college application questions that ask about an applicant’s criminal history.

According to a report from The College Fix, a new bill in Illinois is set to ban college application questions that ask about an applicant’s criminal history. The ban would only apply to public colleges and universities within the state.

The bill, HB3142, would ban colleges from asking prospective students about their criminal history. Most college and university applications ask students to detail their criminal history. This information is used as one of many factors in a holistic admissions process.

The bill states that colleges and universities are permitted to inquire about a student’s criminal history after the student has been admitted. At that point, colleges and universities can use a student’s criminal history to determine if they should be banned from participating in certain “activities or aspects” of university life.

After an individual has been admitted as a student and subject to any applicable federal or State law or local ordinance, a college may, but is not required to, make inquiries about or consider an individual’s past criminal conviction history for the purposes of making decisions about participation in activities and aspects of campus life associated with the individual’s status as a student, including, but not limited to, housing. At no time may a college inquire about criminal history information that is sealed or expunged or that did not result in conviction, including inquiring about any arrests or detentions or any criminal charges and the nature of any disposition arising therefrom that does not result in a conviction.

Some officials in the state of Illinois have pushed back against the proposed bill. Illinois State University Chief of Police Aaron Woodruff told a local news outlet about an exchange he had with a female student over the bill.

“A student came to me and said, ‘Why are they more concerned about rapist’s rights than my rights?’ I didn’t have a good answer for her. And that’s the question I propose to our legislators. If you think about it, in simple terms, we are giving rights to rapists over the rights of our other students,” Woodruff said.

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