Overview - Procedure for Reviewing and Acting Upon Criminal Background Checks

Purpose: There shall be a standing committee established and known as the Committee to Review Criminal Background Checks (“CRCBC”). This committee shall be available to:

A. Review certain conditionally accepted applicants to the three (3) schools of the University of Massachusetts, Worcester (“UMass Chan”), who receive a positive response from a so-called criminal background check (CBC), which may include but is not limited to the Commonwealth’s “Criminal Offender Record Information” check (“CORI”); 
B. Perform (and then review) criminal background checks on medical school students where a clinical rotation site has requested that such be undertaken; and
C. Perform (and then review) criminal background checks on medical school students who we learn (from a clinical rotation site) has received a positive response from their criminal background check.

Composition: This Committee shall be comprised of three individuals: the Chair of the Committee to Review Criminal Background Checks (appointed by the Vice Provost for Student Life), the Associate Vice Chancellor, Diversity and Inclusion Office or designee, and the third member will be a faculty member of the school to which the applicant has applied or attends (the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing, or the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences). The Associate Dean – Graduate Medical Education may, at his/her discretion, serve as a non-voting ad hoc advisory member. At a minimum, the Chair of the Committee to Review Criminal Background Checks and the Associate Vice Chancellor, Diversity and Inclusion Office shall be “CORI-authorized.” If, for whatever reason, a member of the CRCBC (or the later described Review Panel) is unable to serve, the Provost shall appoint a temporary substitute Committee member. If the Chair of the Committee to Review Criminal Background Checks is unable to perform the duties and responsibilities assigned in this process, they will be performed by one of the then-approved “CORI-authorized” agents of UMass Chan.