[IP] Alma Mater as Big Brother

[Nexus <dave@farber.net>]

------- Original message -------
From: Trei, Peter <ptrei@rsasecurity.com>
Sent: 30/3/'05,  10:36

For IP, if you wish.

More from the "Privacy, what's that?" department....

The Education Department wants all information on
every college student.

Peter Trei

----------------

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A8331-2005Mar28?language=printer

Alma Mater As Big Brother

By Katherine Haley Will
Tuesday, March 29, 2005; Page A15 

A proposal by the Education Department would force every 
college and university in America to report all their 
students' Social Security numbers and other information 
about each individual -- including credits earned, degree 
plan, race and ethnicity, and grants and loans received -- 
to a national databank. The government will record 
every student, regardless of whether he or she 
receives federal aid, in the databank. 

The government's plan is to track students individually 
and in full detail as they complete their post-secondary 
education. The threat to our students' privacy is of 
grave concern, and the government has not satisfactorily 
explained why it wants to collect individual information. 

[...]

Under the proposal that will soon be submitted to 
Congress, instead of aggregate statistics, colleges 
and universities would be required to feed data on 
each student to the Education Department's National 
Center for Education Statistics. Should an 
institution refuse, the government could take away 
federal grants, loans and work-study funds from 
every student at the college, a penalty that would 
fall on students in need while leaving more affluent 
students unaffected. 

[...]

The writer is president of Gettysburg College. 


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