Texas Tech Chancellor Announces New Background Check Policy for Foreign Students
Texas Tech Chancellor Announces New Background Check Policy for Foreign Students
The old proverb goes “A chain is no stronger than its weakest link…” And that is also the case when trying to protect university level lab intellectual property from the prying eyes of foreign governments.
In a CBS News report, the Chancellor of the Texas Tech University System, Dr. Tedd Mitchell, announced that his university will continue to conduct background checks on foreign students /researchers embedded in their labs for over six months. And, added, they will now also do background screening for those visiting their university for only a few weeks at a time.
As he stated in the CBS interview, “[T]hat’s the whole problem with this is when you have folks that are embedded in your labs, we don’t know exactly what all is being lost.”
“They come in there literally just a week or two,” Mitchell said. “Historically, we’ve not done background checks on those folks. We are starting to do that now to make sure that if somebody’s coming to our campus, even if it’s for a short period of time, that we know where they’re from, we know whether or not they’re being financed by government agencies elsewhere.”
The CBS News report does not go into the depth of the background screening, except to say that the university wants to know what, if any foreign governments are financing the foreign visitors’ work.
Knowing is half the battle. Background checks and investigations done correctly are VERY important when protecting valuable IP. And success or failure in the courtroom or during the settlement process definitely depends on having the very best, most detailed information about a case. That’s why great attorneys and law firms across the country work with the worldwide team of Santoni Investigations who will make sure you know everything to make the right decisions as well as maximizing the settlement process or winning your case in court!