Universities are in a unique position to educate future leaders and workforces, conduct important research, and even entertain through athletics and the arts. Like most places, unfortunately, not everyone has good intentions. 

Fama partners with universities, schools, and academic search firms all over the country to ensure student safety, academic integrity, and uphold the great culture, values, and reputation of our customers. 

Misconduct in Education 

Educational institutions across the country unfortunately see high levels and rising levels of misconduct. In 2023, our State of Misconduct at Work research found misconduct issues in over 18% of job candidates – potential employees - in the industry. Among those 22% of their online content and/or posts were flagged for intolerance, 11% for sexual misconduct, nearly 7% for threats, and another 3% for acts of violence.

At the beginning of 2024, these alarming statistics have only grown with 21% of candidates in the education sector committing misconduct. Already this year, content with intolerance is up to 25%, 6% of content was flagged for sexual misconduct and for threats. 

Some of the top keywords found in content shared by these potential employees included “bans,” “sex,” and even “murder.” 

Fama Screening in Academia and Higher Education

About the Customer 

A major university in North America employs 10,000 people and an additional 500 student athletes. They are a major focal point in their town, and are one of the largest employers in the area. 

The Challenges

University athletics departments have long been plagued with misconduct and ultimately public scandals. It’s hard to forget coaches like Urban Myer and team doctors like Larry Nassar as well as student athletes like Aaron Hernandez and Jameis Winston. 

Athletics isn’t the only department that is plagued with misconduct. Other departments, including leadership and even professors, aren’t immune. Examples include scandals like the Former American University President Benjamin Ladner who spent an incredible amount of University dollars on lavish personal expenses, and Harvard’s behavioral scientist Francesca Gino who studied honesty committing scientific misconduct, and McMaster University Associate Psychology Professor Scott Watter who committed sexual misconduct at work. 

As a leader in their regional area as well as in academia, the university seeks not only top students in the country but also top faculty, staff, and student athletes. 

This university wanted to make sure that none of the faculty, staff, or students in their athletics department would end up as headlines in the news like those examples above.

The Solution

A key aspect to many of these scandals was content that was posted or created online. The University focused their efforts on finding a solution that could effectively screen publicly available online and social media content.

After reviewing vendors including Social Intelligence and Fama, the Talent Operations team championing the search recommended Fama – citing the modern and convenient user experience, fast turn around time of reports, and the quality and performance of our solution. 

By the 2020 academic school year, the customer signed with Fama. 

The Results 

It didn’t take long for the university to start seeing value. Within months, the university made athletic offers contingent upon a Fama check. And shortly after that, university leadership realized that they wanted to leverage Fama to screen almost all potential professors, faculty, and staff across the entire institution – minus tenured positions and janitorial staff. 

After nearly 5 years with Fama, the institution has run over 2,500 Fama checks. Among those, 12% of faculty and staff candidates had misconduct issues and 21% of student athletes were found to have misconduct issues.

Interestingly also, 21% of the candidate content screened was flagged for intolerance, 18% for sexual misconduct, 6% included threats, and 4% were flagged for violence. 

ROI of Fama for Higher Education

The cost of recruitment is higher than it's ever been. Administrative costs including recruitment have become so high that the ratio of dollars going to instruction vs. administration is widening – and universities are spending more and more on the administrative expenses. As higher education institutions seek to reduce costs, administrative expenses like recruitment and misconduct-related expenses are two areas where preventative measures and risk mitigation can make an impact. Proactive measures like Fama’s online screening are less than a fraction of these costs and return significant benefits. Let’s take a look at the ROI breakdown for recruitment, scandals, and more.

Recruitment Costs 

Higher Education Institutions spend billions of dollars recruiting top talent from all over the world. 

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports that 92% of higher education institutions leverage search firms to place new leaders. Executive search firms have the skills and connections to place great hires, but the cost adds up. The University of Arizona search partner’s start with tens of thousands of dollars per search. In 2023, Illinois State University paid a search firm $110,000 plus expenses to find their next president. ISU has also spent $1.1 million with an outside search firm for 13 positions in the past decade. With the average university president tenure declining from 8.5 years to 5.9 years between 2006 and 2022, these costs are rising. 

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The costs of athletics recruiting is also rising. Universities with D1 athletics programs spend millions to recruit student athletes. As of 2019-2020, reports show SEC schools spent $20 million and the Big Ten schools spent $12 million on recruitment. These budgets have since skyrocketed. The University of Florida, for example, increased athletics recruitment spending from $1.2 million in 2019 to $4.5 million for the 2022-2023 academic school year. University of North Carolina increased spending from $1 million to $3 million in athletics recruiting over the same years. In addition to recruiting, NCAA D1 and D2 schools provide over 180,000 student athletes with more than $3.6 billion in scholarships each year. 

Cost of Misconduct Scandals

Misconduct scandals are costly for universities. Michigan State, for example, agreed to pay over $500 million to settle with 332 of Larry Nassar’s victims and any additional victims that may come forward in the future. The New York Times reported that Florida State University settled their Jameis Winston sexual assault lawsuit for $950,000. American University left former President Benjamin Ladner with a near $4 million severance package after his already lavish spending spree. After being outed for academic fraud and scientific misconduct, Francesca Gino filed a $25 million defamation lawsuit against Harvard and the journalists who outed her.

Cost of Reputation Damaged by Misconduct

Misconduct scandals also damage the reputation of the offender, other researchers associated with the university, and the university at large. After Gino was accused of scientific misconduct, in addition to her suing Harvard for $25 million, Harvard then saw other accusations against researchers and leaders at the university increase, as well. Vox reports that the defamation lawsuit is expected to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and will take years. And that’s if they go to trial and win. 

The cost to overcome the reputational damage then extends into other administrative costs for years. Harvard Business Review finds that organizations with poor reputations spend 10% more recruiting talent than their competitors with better reputations. 

Cost of Fama

Over the span of four years, the cost our customer spent on Fama screenings was insignificant in relation to the university’s recruitment budget. Representing well below 1%.

For every $1 they spent with Fama, they were able to realize $116 in savings from increased recruitment costs.

We calculated this saving based off of only the additional 10% organizations spend in recruiting costs to overcome a poor reputation. This savings does not take into account additional monies spent on lawsuits and settlements for misconduct claims.

By reducing the likelihood of misconduct, the university was also able to reduce the likelihood of scandals and protect their reputation during that time. This allowed them to save as high as 10% in reputational damage costs for recruitment. Between the immaterial cost of Fama, reduced misconduct, and lowered recruitment costs, our customer was able to see significant ROI.

Conclusion

Today, the university benefits from an additional layer of screening for quality candidates and athletes while simultaneously reducing risk. They are committed to offering a world-class experience to all, including students, researchers, employees, and athletes, and continue to trust Fama as a tool in their tech stack to achieve this goal. 

For more information about Fama, request a demo.