Campus Informer - September 21, 2005

The campus round-up with privacy violations galore, a new homeland security major, FBI agents shacking up at Sigma Nu and more.

Homeland Security Becomes a Major at VCU
Virginia Commonwealth University

Virginia Commonwealth University is taking homeland security into its own hands. VCU is the first prominent research school in the nation to offer a major in Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (HSEP). Over 200 students have registered for at least one of the four courses in the major being taught this fall, and 15 have signed up for the major focused on dealing with and preventing disaster. “A lot of them want to get involved,” said Associate Professor and Program Coordinator Bill Newmann, according to Style Weekly. “They remember 9/11, and I think it’s analogous to people signing up for the military after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.” Some HSEP majors, like sophomore Benjamin Colbert, plan a career in the US Coast Guard, others at the FBI, CIA, or in the sadly burgeoning field of disaster relief and security experts. But it seems some of the future Chertoffs and Brownies are showing the same lack of compassion and understanding as those civil servants whose shoes they aim to fill. “What does mandatory evacuation mean?” Colbert asked during a September 6th class. “Like, people don’t leave. … I mean, it puts everyone’s life in danger, and there’s no repercussions. They just get to hang out until a helicopter comes to pick them up.” Rick Santoroum couldn’t have said it better. We hope the program will teach them to do better than their elders.

 
FBI Builds Relationship with Colleges and Universities
National

Presidents and chancellors of 16 American colleges and universities, including Pennsylvania State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have formed the National Security Higher Education Board, an advisory board to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Created by FBI Director and the security community’s Big Chin at Quantico Robert Muller, the board will advise the Bureau on the culture of academic institutions, including traditions of academic freedom, openness and international collaboration, according to the University of Virginia’s Cavalier Daily . "It’s an opportunity for both the FBI and the academic world," said FBI spokesperson William Carter. The FBI and involved schools will particularly focus on boosting safety in matters of intellectual property and digital security. The board will also establish educational initiatives partnering research and security institutions, such as research grants, internships and consulting opportunities. The potentially Orwellian story of the FBI on campus takes on an Old School cast with this item: New Orleans FBI agents have moved into a Sigma Nu fraternity house at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge after their headquarters were destroyed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

 
Miami U. Warns of Major Privacy Violation
Miami University – Ohio

Officials at Miami University in Ohio have notified students and alumni that since 2002, a document containing 21,762 of their names along with corresponding Social Security numbers and grades have accidentally remained publicly accessible on the Internet. The university has offered a toll-free hotline, a special website and a special e-mail address as means for processing student and alumni complaints, and has also brought in trained privacy consultants to help deal with the breach. “The good news is that it’s a fairly isolated area of a vast network," said Richard Little, director of university communications, according to The Miami Student. "The bad news is that it has been there for quite some time.” Somewhere in Connecticut, Estelle Griswold is rolling in her grave.

 
UC-San Diego Would Offer Private Student Information to Military Database
University of California at San Diego

Like many campuses across America, the University of California at San Diego may make its own privacy mess by providing private student information, such as names, addresses, Social Security numbers, areas of study, and even ethnicities for the Department of Defense’s Joint Advertising and Market Research Recruiting Database. The database, which could eventually contain the names of 30 million young Americans age 16 and up, will function as a key tool for military recruitment. “We consider the protection of student privacy as an important responsibility of the campus,” said UCSD Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Joseph Watson. Hey, at least it’s not the precursor to a draft… right?

 
Kentucky Student Questioned by Secret Service over Controversial Online Comment
University of Louisville

Secret Service agents questioned University of Louisville senior Phillip Bailey on issues including his personal views after he posted a controversial comment about President George Bush on a student online message board. In response to an earlier post which opined that looters in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina should be shot, Bailey retorted with some rather inflamed advice for families lifting necessary items like food and water, saying they should “shoot every cop, national guard and politician who stands in your way, INCLUDING GEORGE W. BUSH if need be,” according to the Louisville Cardinal. The editors of the website where Bailey posted his comments have stood by the student’s freedom of expression, and Bailey himself says he has no intention of retracting his statement despite the threat of federal charges.

 
Journalism Student’s Film Roll Confiscated By Police
Southern Illinois University

A photojournalism student at Southern Illinois University had his film confiscated by SIUC police after photographing an arrest on campus, according to the Daily Egyptian. Matthew Bowie claims that officers threatened to arrest the junior from the Chicago suburbs and have him suspended if he did not hand over the film. According to SIUC Police Chief Todd Sigler, police can confiscate film only in military emergencies, which certainly doesn’t jibe with Bowie ’s tale of po-po censorship. Chief Sigler has agreed to meet with members of the School of Journalism faculty, but it’s too late for Bowie’s film, which was returned to the student after it had evidently been exposed to light, à la The X-Files. Both the university and the police department insist that such an incident has not happened in the past. SIU’s journalism department certainly hopes it won’t happen in the future.

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