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Personal security jeopardized |
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Thursday, 25 October 2007 |
by ERICA DURHAM
News Reporter
At this point in life most students are used to receiving unwanted e-mails from unknown senders.
Last week, however, students received e-mails from a professor at East Carolina University. The professor had received the student’s e-mails through the Registrar’s Office.
Senior electronic media/broadcasting major Megan B. Canipe said she does not mind receiving e-mails for academic purposes.
“I don’t want to get spam junk mail in my college account. It is an
invasion of privacy. The college account is for academics for the
school I go to,” Canipe said.
However, Chief Information Office for Information Technology Services
Jeff T. Williams said student e-mail addresses are part of the
university’s directory information.
“The bottom line is that [student e-mails] are North Carolina public records,” Williams said.
Williams said directory information is defined as a student’s name,
Appalachian State University post office box, e-mail address and local
telephone number.
“This has been a real hassle because we have no control over it. Anyone
can make an official request through the registrar,” Williams said.
The Registrar’s Office has previously denied many requests for student information.
“Under the North Carolina Act, as a public entity we must disclose what
is not under the family education rights and privacy act. The N.C.
Public Records Act gives news agencies access to public records,”
Registrar Don R. Rankins said.
The issue with giving out students e-mail is it sometimes is made available to those making a profit.
“This makes it worse because another way to tap into information is to
make profit off of products,” Rankins said. “We are trying to restrict
it; you will notice that you hardly ever get anything at home. The only
communication is your e-mail. We do not send anything to your parents.”
Students can request to have their information taken off the directory with the Registrar’s Office.
“We want to emphasize that there are problems with taking names off of the directory,” Rankins said.
If a student takes their information out of the directory, they cannot
receive grades, degree certificates, financial aid information, and
other such business items.
There is an average of 20 to 30 students a semester who choose to take their information off the directory.
“In the extreme cases that students think they are being stalked, it is
time to talk about [taking names out of the directory]. We cannot talk
to the student or verify anything until the student takes off the
restriction,” Rankins said.
However, students maintain complete control over what their parents know about their records.
“Students have to give permission to parents to see their records and
to check their account or to pay by credit card,” Rankins said.
“We advocated taking the physical address off of the directory. Now no
one can physically access a student. We are now seeing the same abuse
of the physical address with the student e-mail. It is the next logical
step,” Rankins said.
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