The University of Wisconsin-Madison found itself at the center of a public debate this summer for not immediately firing three professors convicted of crimes.

But while UW-Madison may be the most visible school under attack, university policies that protect employees from dismissal based solely on criminal convictions are everywhere, including Marquette.

Marquette's policy is to"follow state and federal employment laws," said Mary Pat Pfeil, senior director of university communication. Under these laws, she said, criminal conviction in and of itself is not an automatic ground for termination.

"State law requires that the employer demonstrate a connection between the criminal act and employment," Pfeil said. "The university needs to comply with the law."

The law could come into play at Marquette depending on the trial of Antony Periathamby, a research professor in the School of Dentistry. Periathamby recently pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of using a computer to facilitate a child sex crime.

Capt. Russ Shaw, assitant director of the Department of Public Safety, said charges against university employees like Periathamby are rare at Marquette.

"It's not a common problem at Marquette," Shaw said. "As far as I'm concerned, this is an isolated incident."

Periathamby's case differs from the three UW-Madison professors' situation because all three of them have already been convicted of crimes and jailed. Periathamby has not been convicted. The UW-Madison professors' convictions include sexual assault, exposing a child to harmful material and stalking. While in jail, two of the professors remained on the university payroll and collected pay for accrued vacation time.

According to Brian Mattmiller, director of public information for UW-Madison, the university's policy is to conduct its own investigation after a criminal conviction to determine employment status.

"When these people were sentenced, they were suspended without pay until the university investigation," Mattmiller said. "They are still getting a paycheck based on accrued vacation leave. They are allowed by law to go through it."

Some have been quick to praise this policy.

Robert Kreiser, senior program officer with the American Association of University Professors, Washington, D.C., said conducting internal investigations of employees prevents schools from firing those convicted of crimes solely because their continued employment may reflect poorly on the school.

"A separate hearing is intended as a general principle to protect academic freedom," Kreiser said. "This is not to diminish the weight of their crimes, but is part of a larger principle of due process in the academic community."

Kreiser added that most colleges and universities in the United States follow a policy similar to UW-Madison's.

But some people believe that ought to change.

Rep. Scott Suder (R-Abbotsford) has made phone calls and sent letters to UW-Madison calling for a list of employees who have been convicted of serious crimes. He and nine other state legislators are advocating a policy change that would immediately dismiss university employees and disallow them to use accrued vacation pay once they are convicted.

"Students deserve to know, and the taxpayers deserve to know. These are public employees," he said. "Prisoners are not on vacation, or they shouldn''t be."

The next avenue Suder said he will pursue en route to change is to hold public hearings on the matter. He and the nine other legislators want to write in a statute stipulating that once a UW System employee is convicted of a serious crime, the individual is no longer employed by the system, he said.

Such legislation would apply to all schools in the UW System, including UW-Madison and UW-Milwaukee.

Tom Luljak, vice chancellor for university relations and communications for UW-Milwaukee, said he was not aware of any instances of university employees receiving vacation pay while in jail. He said as a UW school, the Milwaukee campus follows the policy of conducting separate investigations of convicted employees before firing them, but there have not been problems to the extent that UW-Madison is currently facing.

Doug Bradley, director of communications for the UW System, said the Board of Regents is monitoring the situation at UW-Madison and will review its policies at a meeting this fall.

"The Board of Regents is going to look at what the law is, what people's rights are, and if there's some reason that there's a policy or practice that seems to be followed that doesn't make sense," Bradley said.

Whether university polices should or will change remains up for debate, but Suder is sure of one thing;"I'm convinced now that this is just the tip of the iceberg," he said.

This article was published in The Marquette Tribune on August 29, 2005.