INSIGHT - The Metropolitan

OUR OPINION
TIME FOR METRO TO REFORMAT
By Gary Boley
gboley@mscd.edu

    One of the responsibilities of The Metropolitan is to make sure our fellow Metro students know what their administration knows—or in this case, doesn’t.
    Time and time again, over the course of two open meetings, President Stephen Jordan has repeated, “I’m sorry, but I don’t know the answer to that question,” or some equally worthless variation of the administrative cold shoulder.
    Well, we’re sorry, but we’re sick of not getting answers.
    This much is fact: according to a police report, a laptop was stolen from the home of Daniel Parks, associate director of admissions and data management. A reporter and photographer from this paper were shut out of Parks’ office – in a public building – while trying to get his comments about this issue, and our staff has been consistently stonewalled by the Metro administration while attempting to gather information.
    Now, any other day this wouldn’t be a big deal. But the kicker is, the laptop may—or many not have—contained an unencrypted Excel document with 93,000 students’ personal information.
    According to Jordan, Parks doesn’t know whether or not he purged the information from the laptop, which, to us, means he did not. People usually remember doing specific things and have difficulty remembering things they didn’t do.
    According to the report, which was filed by Parks, the only things taken from his home were the laptop (which the Denver police have consistently written as “lab-top”), its bag and five “D&D books.”
    The report says the burglar entered through an unlocked front window, “made their way through the house,” removed the items and left through the front door.
Mum has been the word from the Denver Police Department, as well.
    So, this burglar wandered through this house and took only a laptop? No CDs? No DVDs? No other electronic equipment? This burglar couldn’t find anything else worth grabbing while committing a felony?
    And what do the police have to show for their investigation? Possible fingerprints. Possible? What sort of qualifier is that? Are they fingerprints or not? Whose fingerprints are they?
    Metro’s administration has also changed its story as time has progressed.
    During our first discussions with Metro administrators, we were told students’ names, Social Security numbers and courses taken were the only data in the file. Since that time, personal addresses and birthdates have been added to the list, giving an interested party everything they would need to fraudulently apply for a credit card.
    OK, we’re getting offtrack now and just heading toward more unanswered questions.
    Let’s set one thing straight.
    According to the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, Metro is to maintain educational records for each student enrolled and students have the right to disclosure of these records, especially their admission information.
Parks has two separate capacities in which he exists on this campus.
    While Parks, as a college official filing for a Title III grant, is an exception to the FERPA disclosure rule, Parks as a UCD student writing his masters thesis is not. He has massively overstepped his bounds as a UCD student.
    Because of Metro’s apparent lack of ability to properly separate Parks’ capacities, it has put every Metro student who attended from Fall 1996 to Summer 2005 at serious risk. The Metro administration has put our credit and identities in jeopardy. And Metro should be held responsible for its blatant negligence toward our privacy.
    We look forward to the reports that will be filed from a third-party investigation. And for the ax to drop on those responsible for this abhorrent act of negligence.

The Metropolitan welcomes all letters from Metro students, teachers, faculty and administration. Letters must be typed and submitted to the Insight Editor by Monday, 3 p.m. the week of production. Send letters to ngarci20@mscd.edu or leave your letter for Nic Garcia in the Office of Student Media, Tivoli Student Union, Room 313. Editors reserve the right to edit all letters for content, clarity and space. Letters must be signed and dated with contact information for the writer. Letters may be no longer than 300 words. Any submissions longer will be considered for “Their Opinion.” All rules apply to longer essays. Essays may be no longer than 500 words.