Only new employees with "significant contact with minors (defined as those 21 years or younger)" or those who will hold "security sensitive" positions will be checked, according to the plan. Adjunct faculty members are exempt from the law.

Utah Valley State College President William Sederberg said he supports background checks as spelled out by the regents. "It gives institutions flexibility," he said at a meeting at Snow College in Ephraim.

The law passed by the 2007 Legislature allows institutions of higher education two years to implement their background-check policies, and allows individual colleges' leaders to choose how they will react if a background check identifies a problem with an employee.

All employees of the Utah Higher Education Assistance Authority, which administers student financial aid, and the Office of the Higher Education Commissioner had their backgrounds checked two years ago, Commissioner Richard Kendell said.

"Of 250 employees, we only had a couple of reports that came back with problems, and we worked them out."

He said he recognizes systemwide background checks may turn up a higher incidence of problems that schools will have to address.

Steve Burr, member of Utah State University's Faculty Senate, said the policy received little debate in May.

"I don't anticipate much negative reaction because of the crazy times we live in," he said. "There were some questions raised, but we agreed to it."

smcfarland@sltrib.com