Last Tuesday, a well-liked and respected psychology professor dropped a bomb on his students. Robert Bechtel, a kind-looking, soft-spoken man in his 70s who has been a professor at the UA for more than 20 years, sat his students down and told them that when he was a 22-year-old college student, he shot and killed a fellow student.

Bechtel, who sat on death row for a few months in 1955, was ultimately found not guilty by reason of insanity. He had been bullied since he was four years old, and his tormentors at Swarthmore College apparently drove him off the edge of sanity with constant teasing and abuse.

What cannot be denied is that Bechtel's five years in a state hospital for the criminally insane turned him into a different man. He turned his life around, went back to school and received tenure after one year as a professor at the UA. He is also remorseful about what happened, even making amends with the victim's parents, who wrote him a letter forgiving him for his brutal act. He is married and his daughter graduated from the UA in 2001.

It is not Professor Bechtel's sincerity or even the remote possibility that he might still be a threat to students that causes concern. Possibly just as incredible as Bechtel's past is that only recently has the administration and Bechtel's superiors heard of the incident. When he applied to be a professor here 28 years ago, he made no mention of the incident, and the university did not investigate his past.

At some point a line needs to be drawn. We do not question Bechtel's intentions or his merits as a teacher - instead, we question the administration's total complacency with the fact that a man who once killed as a college student is now teaching in a similar academic environment. Bechtel admits his students were "thoroughly shocked," and it is reasonable to assume that some may be uncomfortable just sitting in his class. They deserve, as does everyone at this university, a policy that outlines what kind of people should be permitted in such a trusted position.

While it might be tempting to make exceptions for a man who has clearly reformed himself and capably handled the grim nature of his past, this does not lessen the import of the principles at stake. Simply the fact that Bechtel did not explain his past when applying to work in an ethically based discipline is deeply troubling. Future applicants with a similar past might not be as well-intentioned as Professor Bechtel seems to be. When so much is at stake, there cannot be a double standard.

When a person kills a university student - whether they are found innocent for reasons of insanity or not - they should lose the right to work with students in the future. The bar cannot be set any lower than this. The UA needs a policy that will protect students from the possible harm, or simple uneasiness, of taking a class with a man who admits to murder.

Staff opinions are the opinion of the Arizona Daily Wildcat opinions board and written by one of its members. Its members are Caitlin Hall, Susan Bonicillo, Nate Buchik, Evan Caravelli and Brett Fera.