Kate Perkowski reports:
Undergraduate students are not the only ones concerned with personal information available through UK’s [University of Kentucky’s] online people search — now, graduate students are voicing their concern, too.
Members of UK’s graduate school have recently voiced concern about their information like home address and home telephone number being available on the UK Web site without their knowledge, said English teaching assistant Jesslyn Collins-Frohlich.
“We’ve been talking in my office because there are at least two or three people who’ve had students … call them late at night,” Collins-Frohlich said. “As a TA and as a student instructor, you just don’t really want that relationship and that access to you.”
[…]
T. Lynn Williamson, senior associate in legal services, said …. if a student got a privacy flag, UK would not be able to confirm them as a student because of the law, and that student would find his or her name missing at commencement ceremonies as well.
Williamson said creating a system that allows students to choose what information is made available is possible, but not at UK. Williamson said it would take thousands of dollars to let students choose what information they wanted available.
“Is it possible at the University of Kentucky with the technologies, the computer systems that we have? No, it’s not possible,” he said.
Read more on Kentucky Kernel.
So what is UK saying? That student privacy and safety not worth thousands of dollars? I hope UK takes a harder look at the issue and resolves to figure out a way to address the students’ concerns.