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Volume 41, Issue 9
February 3, 2004
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February
3, 2004
Form allows release of details
Student confusion gives college right to give out information
Nick Martin
Mesa Legend
MCC has sold or given away lists of the names, addresses and phone numbers
of its students to outside companies and organizations with the permission
of students on the lists. Some students, however, were never aware they
had given the college their permission to do this.
Companies such as for profit colleges, other colleges such as ASU, and
military branches including the Army receive student information and use
it to recruit. Students receive phone calls or mailings from these organizations
without knowing that the college had given out their information.
The confusion appears to stem from question 18 on the student information
form, the first official sheet every new student must fill out to enroll
at MCC. Some students have said the question is vaguely worded.
The question reads: Information Release: Do you give permission for the
college to release directory information relative to your enrollment (as
per the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974)?
It then lists two options: “yes” or “no.”
On Dec. 12, a brief, informal survey was given to half a dozen MCC students
on campus, asking them to look at question 18 on the student information
form and explain what it meant.
One student, Ian Lynch, a philosophy major, said, “I have no idea.
This is so vague.”
The students all said they could not understand what the question meant,
nor could they explain the consequences of checking either “yes”
or “no.”
Students were also asked if the question had been explained to them during
registration.
All but one of the six students said it had not.
In one instance, Bert Locket, a college freshman, said his high school
counselors handed out student information forms last year while he and
others were taking a tour of the college.
“I filled it out there,” he said. “And no, the counselors
didn’t explain it.”
MCC’s supervisor of admissions, Linda Shaw, admitted that question
18 may not be clear but said the admissions office tries to clarify any
confusion.
“I don’t know that students understand it,” she said,
“but we explain what it is.”
Students who leave the answer to question 18 blank or who specifically
ask about it will get it explained to them by employees in the admissions
office, Shaw said, but employees do not tell students that their names
could be released to companies or the military who then try to recruit
MCC students, she said.
MCC’s college catalog does not mention that information may be released
to these organizations either. The catalog has an entire sub-section devoted
to explaining the release of directory information, but fails to mention
that companies and military branches may use lists of MCC student information
to recruit students.
It does, however, explain which details may be released with student permission.
Releasable information includes: the student’s name, address, telephone
number, major, e-mail address, awards received and part or full time status.
Even photos that the school has of its students are available for release,
according to the catalog.
Carol Petersen, the college’s director of admissions and records,
said the decision as to who can get lists of student information is up
to one person: herself.
“Maricopa (Community Colleges) has always had a very, very conservative
look on this,” Petersen said. Student information is only released
at the discretion of the records department, but she does not release
it to just anyone. The three groups that she has given names, addresses,
and sometimes phone numbers to are the military, state colleges, and for-profit
colleges such as Phoenix College.
MCC and the district do not appear to have written policies regarding
which outside organizations can have access to student names, addresses
or phone numbers.
Teresa Toney, manager of Governance/Ombuds Services for the district,
said the college follows the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act (FERPA)
and Arizona state law in regards to who gets the information, but could
not provide specific and written district-mandated policies to decide
who can and cannot receive the lists.
The school also has the right to sell the list of student names, Petersen
said, but she said she could only recall ever charging Phoenix College
for names and addresses. The other groups have been given names and addresses
for free, Petersen said, and branches of the military are allowed phone
numbers on top of that.
Jules Levy, education service specialist for the Army Recruiting Battalion
in Phoenix, is in charge of gathering names and phone numbers of 17- to
24-year-olds from 33 colleges in New Mexico, west Texas and Arizona and
distributing them to local Army recruiters. He said that the he spends
between $10,000 and $15,000 every year buying lists of student names from
colleges.
While Levy does not currently have to buy the list of names from MCC,
he said school policies never stay the same.
“It changes from year to year,” he said. “If an administrator
changes so might the price of the list.”
The Army, according to Levy, spends more time and money training their
recruiters than any other branch of the military. Phone recruiting is
very important to the Army, he said.
This is why why when some schools charge as much as $3,000 for their student
names, the Army will pay, he said.
Sometimes, students get angry at the recruiters who call them, Levy said,
and recruiters will remind students that they consented to the phone calls
while registering for school.
Admissions director Petersen said there is confusion by students as to
what they are choosing when they are filling out the student information
form and look at question 18.
Many students, she said, think marking “yes” means their information
would be available to family.
“They think mom and dad are going to come get the grades,”
she said.
But to clarify, question 18 actually refers to FERPA, which became law
in the 1970s. According to the MCC campus catalog, FERPA gives students
four rights regarding their personal information:
The right to file a request for and receive access within 45 days to their
educational records.
The right to ask the college to change what students believe to be inaccurate
or misleading information in their records.
The right to consent to whether “personally identifiable information,”
such as name, address and phone number, is released. School officials
who have “legitimate educational interests” fall under an
exception to this and are entitled to access the information.
The right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education if
students think the college is not complying with the requirements of FERPA.
Spokesman for the Department of Education, Jim Bradshaw, said they receive
about 100 complaints a year from all over the county as per FERPA. He
did not, however, know if any complaints had been filed against MCC.
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