Tenant Screening: Protecting College Students

In the shooting at the University of Texas at Austin by a 19-year-old Mathematics major is just the latest in a rash of college shootings across the nation. In this shooting, only the shooter himself died, but, in other shootings, the carnage was far more serious. Any loss of life is tragic, and most shootings put dozens of students at risk worrying parents and causing students themselves to suffer unwarranted stress whether or not they were directly involved.

Violence on college campuses across the country highlights the need for everyone to be aware of how students are at risk of becoming a victim. To that end, some colleges have created policies that are designed to enhance safety. Certainly, such policies include a campus warning system, a solid security force, and student education on such concerns as date rape and campus safety.

At least one university, The University of Maryland, has taken this a step further by dictating policy on off-campus housing safety. The University of Maryland has created a handout, called Tenant Screening Information for Landlords, that encourages landlords providing off-campus to students to engage in a thorough tenant screening process before renting to students and non-students alike.

The handout advocates not only the use of consumer reports and credit checks for all potential tenants, but it also endorses the use of a full background check for all renters. A full background check should include the following:

• Housing History
• Criminal records
• Sexual offender status
• Credit history
• Employment verification
• Reference check

The lives of our college students are worth far more than the small fee a full background check costs landlords and/or rental applicants. Parents, students, and college administrators should insist all on and off-campus housing should require a complete background check, including criminal history. Although it certainly won’t prevent every act of violence, it would go a long way toward keeping students, administrators, and faculty safer in the college environment.