Editorial: A push to remove criminal history from college applications

The past few months have been critical in the fight to make higher education more accessible to all, especially those with criminal records. This summer, the U.S. Department of Education called on public and private universities to reassess the way that criminal records affect applicants' admission. In June, they called upon universities to adopt the Fair Chance Higher Education Pledge, which asks admissions officers to look past the check box that asks if applicants have a criminal record, in order to provide a second opportunity for students previously convicted of crimes. This has been a continuous effort of the Obama Administration, as evidenced by the removal of the question about prior criminal charges on all job applications for federal agencies.

The president’s efforts have been met with some success. The Common Application decided to reword the question on criminal records in an effort to make it less ambiguous and less intimidating. The biggest success, however, came two weeks ago when the State University of New York (SUNY) made the decision to remove the felony question from their application altogether. SUNY’s new policy will only ask students about their criminal record if, once admitted, they would like to live on campus or enroll in a specialized program.

SUNY’s decision stems partially from a report by the Center for Community Alternatives, which estimates that a higher proportion of students stopped their application process when they encountered the felony question than the proportion of students who were actually denied admittance based on their prior convictions.Student initiatives also played a role in SUNY’s decision. In April, the SUNY student assembly passed a resolution to remove the felony question from the university’s application. This resolution was followed by a public hearing held by the board of trustees. In a matter of months, SUNY’s students and administrators were able to create a new policy that will open the doors to many young people who want to receive a higher education.

If this new policy is widely adopted it could be especially important for communities of color and for many prospective students of color targeted by an unfair criminal justice system. In the United States, people of color are unjustly overrepresented in the prison system; while African-Americans and Latinx people only make up around 30 percent of the U.S. population, they constitute over 60 percent of those imprisoned. Removing what may seem to be a small or relatively insignificant question on an application will help ease reintegration after prison for people of color with criminal records. In a country where a college education has become practically essential for any job, this one question carries a lot of weight.

SUNY is the first in what will hopefully be a long list of colleges and universities that will make an effort to remove this question from their application. Studies have shown no direct link between criminal records and on-campus violence, and asking this question only discourages students that may be academically prepared from applying to college. The decision to remove this question is not only fair, but also smart. It is time that colleges across the nation, including Tufts University, join in revising or removing this question from their applications.