Opinion

Privacy act imposes on freedoms

Safety has always been a key aspect of the American dream. All people want to feel they are protected. For this reason, we have police, security and rules in place. Unfortunately, after the massacre at Virginia Tech last year, students and parents have become wary of how safe college campuses around the country really are. In response to this, as well as the growing threat of identity theft on campus, the U.S. Department of Education released the new Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act guidelines, which will take effect this month.

FERPA has been reformed as of Jan. 8 in response to these threats. ED spokesman Jim Bradshaw said that the new guidelines’ purpose is to clarify schools’ rights to release information on students thought to be threats to themselves or fellow students. ED wants institutions of higher learning to know they have the right to notify parents, law enforcement and school and health officials of potential risks.

New student-privacy rules may make logging in, requesting transcripts and day-to-day computer usage more difficult.

Students can no longer use their campus identification numbers to access education records, except when coupled with other identifiers such as a social security number, date of birth or other authenticating factors. When one considers what is at stake, it seems a small price to pay for students to know that their hard work will remain theirs and not be stolen and used by someone with ulterior motives.

However, FERPA’s new guidelines with concern to reporting ‘suspicious activity’ seem foreboding. Similar to The Patriot Act, signed into law in 2001 by former President George W. Bush in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the question is, how far are we willing to go to keep our campuses safe? Though seemingly an easy question to answer, students’ privacy, which is supposed to be what FERPA protects, may actually have been jeopardized. College is known to be a place of higher education and presumably a place which nurtures advanced thinking and free speech. It is hoped that a fear of an impending doom and the unknown does not inhibit students from freely expressing themselves.

FERPA’s financial plans regarding these changes remain unclear. Operating budgets for schools are down and the U.S. is in a recession. To afford the campus Information Technology chiefs who will be making said changes, teachers’ salaries will decrease, funding for programs will be cut, or tuition will rise.

UH already has an emergency warning system in place, which e-mails and text messages students important information, but not all areas of campus have cell phone reception. Protection from an unknown threat is important, but thoughtful protections require reflection in order not to cause more harm than they prevent.

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