Letter to campus community from Bazzell on LAB felon audit

The Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) on Feb. 28 released an audit showing that 40 employees of the UW System, including 27 employees at UW–Madison, have felony conviction records.

This audit came about at the request of lawmakers in October, after UW–Madison dealt with three high-profile cases of faculty convicted of felonies. They were the first such cases involving faculty in many years, and obviously they were – and continue to be – distressing matters for the university to endure.

A few important issues should be emphasized in the wake of this audit. First, the safety of the campus community is a paramount concern at the university. We perform background checks of employees in many critical environments, including day care centers, housing facilities and sensitive material labs. We do not believe that the results of the audit indicate in any way that campus safety was compromised.

Second, the audit identifies felony convictions in fewer than one-tenth of 1 percent of the more than 40,000 employees throughout the UW System. We believe that a similar audit of any major state agency or corporation would likely find a percentage of convicted felons that mirrors the UW system figures.

Third, state law prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of conviction records, unless the offense is substantially related to an employee’s job. At the request of auditors, we are conducting a detailed internal investigation of all individual cases to determine whether the felony has any connection to their current position.

In our initial review, we found two cases where it appears some duties may be substantially related to their convictions. We have temporarily reassigned duties in those cases while the review continues. Under no circumstances was safety a factor in either case.

We welcome any and all constructive proposals that will allow the university to operate more safely and efficiently. The audit recommended that the UW System take a number of corrective actions, and we have either already completed those actions or are close to doing so.

What are the next steps for the university? One area of progress is in policies related to background checks. A UW–Madison task force has been working diligently for several months on practices related to background checks and we believe the work will lay the foundation for a uniform policy on the subject.

Finally, we should keep in mind one of the basic principles behind corrections. We expect people to pay for their crimes, but no one wants to see high recidivism rates among convicted criminals. One important aspect of reform is the ability to find some form of work and contribute to society.

Like any other employer, universities play a role in that equation.

– Darrell Bazzell, vice chancellor for administration