Some students were disturbed by a letter distributed to most of the campus's male population through the Hinman Post Office last week. The letter was from a person in Cambridge, Mass. seeking a mate from an elite college. The person claimed the list of addresses was obtained legally from a source within the College.
Distributing a student mailing list to an outside source is an abuse of students' right to privacy, but it is hardly as shocking as the list of other personal facts the College will reveal. Dartmouth will give any stranger the maximum of information allowed by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act: a student's "name, age, dates of enrollment and residence, major, degrees awarded, awards and honors, addresses and telephone number, date and place of birth, relationship to an alumnus or alumna of the College, most recent school previously attended, extracurricular activities, weight and height of members of athletic teams and other similar information."
Dean of the College Lee Pelton said Dartmouth "errs on the side of protecting the release of student information." But a reporter from The Dartmouth had no trouble obtaining the major, home and campus phone numbers and addresses of a member of our staff from the dean's office.
On the College's World Wide Web page, the Dartmouth Name Directory is available to anyone with an internet connection. This makes it simple for an outside source to obtain and distribute a listing of students' Hinman Boxes, telephone numbers and class years. The potential for abuse is phenomenal.
Students must submit a request to the College in writing if they want their personal information to remain confidential. Students were notified of this policy in a single document that arrived with a mountain of pre-matriculation housing applications, surveys, health forms and financial aid forms. It is little wonder that so few students know their personal information is available to any stranger.
The College should immediately restrict access to the DND directory: only members of the Dartmouth community should be given access. Mailing lists should only be shared with College departments for use in legitimate College business.
Campus phone numbers are the only information that should be available to the public, unless a student wishes to conceal that information. Additional information should be made available only in an emergency. For instance, Columbia University discloses home telephone numbers only in cases of "life and death."
Outside sources seeking information about a student should be required to consult the person who can best judge what information is private -- the student himself.
