“The Common Application announced Thursday that it will maintain questions about applicants’ criminal background and disciplinary records, rejecting a push to drop the questions. At the same time, the Common Application – the dominant player in competitive college admissions – said that it would provide more context about the questions, including the ability of colleges to suppress answers to those questions.” …
I personally would not want my children to attend a college that suppressed answers to these questions. Sure, a student might have an innocuous misdemeanor conviction for a prank or something relatively insignificant. They could explain the circumstances to admissions officers. But what if they have multiple convictions for violent/sexual offenses? Couldn’t suppression of this fact create a safety risk for students and a potential liability for a school? Most importantly, shouldn’t there be consequences for our actions?