And that is linked to one of the strongest arguments for the change: Applicants’ criminal histories can reflect society-wide biases that are beyond their control. One in five black men who belong to the lowest-income families in the U.S. is sent into a correctional facility on any given day, according to a March 2018 paper co-authored by the Stanford economist Raj Chetty and published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. And as Tiffany Jones, who directs the higher-education-policy team at the advocacy organization Education Trust, pointed out to me in an interview, young people who are not white or who are poor are more likely to receive harsher sentences. They are also more likely to lack access to effective legal representation and are disproportionately targeted by law enforcement in the first place.

[The ease of online college applications could hurt poor students]

The change goes against the results of a survey the organization (also called the Common Application) conducted among its members in March. That survey found most colleges and universities that use the Common App wanted to know applicants’ criminal histories. The move this week could be seen as a sign that the Common App might be taking on more of a role as a proactive agent of social mobility.

Daniel Obregon, the Common App’s spokesman, told me in an email that some relevant context for the decision was a change to the organization's mission a few years ago, with the addition of a commitment to “access, equity, and integrity.” But he also focused on logistical considerations, explaining that there is “increasingly less ‘commonality’ in terms of how institutions use criminal history information in their admissions decisions.”

The new policy still gives colleges flexibility: Schools can obtain information about criminal history through other means—by, say, specifically asking in their application supplements (also available through the Common App) whether applicants have ever been convicted of a violent or sexual crime. New York University offers an example of this approach: In 2015 the school announced that it would be ignoring the criminal-history question on the Common App and would instead ask students in its supplement about their criminal background; it keeps the information confidential during the admissions-decision process, after which the information would become available to school officials only if and when a student was accepted.

Even so, some research suggests that collecting applicants’ criminal history doesn’t make campuses any safer. A survey conducted jointly by the Center for Community Alternatives, which advocates for criminal-justice reform, and the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers found that colleges and universities that don’t ask students to provide such information do not report that their schools are less safe as a result; generally speaking, there’s little compelling evidence drawing a correlation between that practice and campus safety.