There are gaps in the background check process for Ohio State students and employees, administration and Human Resources officials said. Those gaps, which could apply to some students and most faculty, will be addressed in a discussion about campus safety at a Board of Trustees meeting Thursday.

Background checks are used to “lower the odds” of violence on campus, said Martha Garland, vice president for Student Life, who will lead the discussion at the meeting.

“But even perfect background checks don’t guarantee that someone won’t … do something terrible,” Garland said.

The board discussion was prompted by the workplace shooting in March, she said, when a third-shift custodial worker shot and killed a supervisor, wounded another and then turned the gun on himself.

One background check performed at the time the shooter, Nathaniel Brown, was hired in 2009 failed to turn up a felony conviction for receiving stolen property.

The background check system also might be incomplete, Garland said, because in most cases, faculty members don’t get reviewed. But she said that would likely change as “step by step” more people are included in checks.

The background check process “is in a state of evolution,” said Larry Lewellen, vice president for Human Resources, in an e-mail.

“Over the past two years we have significantly increased our background check requirements,” he said, “and today the majority of our staff positions require (a) background check.”

Human Resources rules require that candidates for certain top-level administration positions, such as the president or provosts, undergo background checks.

Beyond that, it is up to individual departments, such as Dining Services or Housing, to decide whether to conduct background checks on other positions. Human Resources must approve the departments’ procedures.

Some departments check all final candidates for all position openings, and some only check for positions “deemed to be ‘sensitive’ in nature, some of which may be required by law,” according to Human Resources documents.

“We haven’t gotten to (faculty) yet,” Garland said. “But we’re moving in that direction.”

The other possible gap involves the small number of student applicants who might be subjected to background checks.

The OSU application form includes a question that asks if applicants have ever been convicted of a felony or have been the subject of judicial procedures at another university.

If the record shows a propensity for violence, “sometimes that’s grounds for not admitting students,” Garland said.

But returning students, who have been away from OSU for a period of time and are re-admitted to the university, are not asked those questions, Garland said.

Background checks are only part of the larger issue of campus safety that will be addressed at the trustees’ meeting, she said.

The presentation Garland will give is about the resources available to deal primarily with “distressed and disturbed individuals,” which could be faculty, staff or students, she said.

Counseling programs and Crisis Assessment Teams are “a network of people” that help deal with those disruptive individuals who threaten violence.

The discussion is to make more people aware of the programs, Garland said, not to say they need to be expanded.

“We’re very well pleased with how they work,” she said.

According to a Lantern report after the shooting, Brown was described as hostile by a supervisor after being given a poor performance review. Neither Garland nor Lewellen could discuss whether any of the resources or counseling teams had been used prior to the shooting in March. Garland said such information could be part of an ongoing police investigation.

The board will discuss campus safety and the background check process Thursday at 4 p.m. at the Longaberger Alumni House.