If an Ohio State applicant has a felony record, the first thing he must decide is whether to commit another crime by lying on the application.
Starting in 2006, OSU added Question No. 9 to its application: “Have you ever pled guilty to or been convicted of a felony, or is any felony charge currently pending against you?”
If an applicant answers “yes,” the application is reviewed by the Q9 Committee, a panel named after the felony question. The committee was established in 2006, said Louise Douce, assistant vice president of Student Affairs and Student Life.
Douce said she didn’t recall a specific event or reason that prompted OSU to create the committee. She said it was in conjunction with an effort at the time to do more thorough background checks on employees.
For this academic year, 86 people with felony records applied to OSU’s Columbus campus — between 15 and 20 of those enrolled, said Mabel Freeman, assistant vice president of Undergraduate Admissions and First Year Experience.
The trend has been rising. OSU processed 26 in 2006, 32 in 2007, 37 in 2008 and 56 in 2009. OSU received 91 applications with “yes” answers for Summer and Autumn Quarters 2010 combined.
“People ask why we protect felons,” Freeman said. “People do dumb things in this world, and some usually good people do some dumb things.”
Of course, many more felons could be attending OSU. The university screens only those applicants who acknowledge on their applications that they have been convicted of a felony. The university does not do a criminal record check on applicants, so only those who reveal their records are scrutinized for admission.
The biggest risk for a student who does not reveal a felony on an application is that he or she will be expelled if OSU learns about the lie.
Students have lied, said Andrea Goldblum, director of Student Judicial Affairs and Q9 member. “If exposed, typically their admission is rescinded, since it was based on falsified information.”
Most of these felons have records for drug use or drug possession, Douce said. Very few applicants have a record of violent crime.
“We’re not admitting anyone who committed a serious felony,” she said.
“We do see, though, a range of drugs and alcohol to manslaughter applications. The manslaughter may deal with self-defense in a domestic abuse or even vehicular situations,” Douce said.
Some applicants said they have a felony record when, in fact, they don’t. They confused a traffic ticket with a felony crime.
“Some students are just unsure of what constitutes a felony,” Freeman said.
Once an application is referred to the committee, it seeks information from several sources. The committee contacts parole officers, police and the court that has jurisdiction over the applicant. The committee does not interview the applicant.
“The committee isn’t making an admittance decision,” Freeman said.
“It’s whether or not they could cause harm on our campus and whether or not they can be a productive part of the university.”
The committee has basic criteria for judging an applicant. The members consider the nature of the offense, multiple or repeat offenses, whether there is evidence of rehabilitation and other factors.
In some cases, the committee will admit a felon but impose restrictions. Some, for example, are not allowed to live in the residence halls.
But once a felon is admitted, the university does not monitor that person’s behavior any differently.
However, if the felon gets in some trouble, OSU “will circle around to see what happened in the admissions process,” Freeman said.
“I can say a couple have had disciplinary issues,” Goldblum said, “though they were minor.”
