By Andrew Damstedt
Utah Valley State College will no longer publish private information on their student directory, after the administration looked at a decade old policy responding to complaints about students receiving Playboy ads.
Derek Hall, UVSC spokesperson, said the policy needed to be changed and they were working on it before news media publicized the complaints.
?We were working on changing the policy before the articles in response to complaints we have received from students,? Hall said.
The new guidelines will adhere to the minimum standard of information required by the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, which requires colleges and universities to publish certain student information.
The information that will be left in the online directory, the only student directory, will be the student?s name, phone number, major and degree received. The information eliminated will be student?s home addresses, birth dates and e-mail addresses. Also, no information from student?s under the age of 18 will be available.
Hall said the administration considered putting the directory behind a password so students and other members could see personal information, but decided against it.
?It?s not an effective way to protect the list,? Hall said. ?We found out that in most cases at other institutions these groups were hiring students who had passwords ? a part-time job for college students in many cases.?
BYU?s password protected directory does list addresses, unless deleted by the student. But the online directory available to the public does not list addresses, Carri Jenkins, BYU spokesperson said. She said she does not know of any cases where a BYU student has sold the information.
?Those addresses should not be distributed or provided for lists for outside companies by students,? Jenkins said.
The new UVSC policy has already been approved by the administration and is likely to be approved by the Board of Trustees at their next meeting Feb. 10.
?We don?t feel the info needs to be out there and there is too many misuses,? said Heather Barnum, UVSC communications assistant director. ?We feel that the students should have the privacy the deserve.?
UVSC students can request all of their information to be withheld by submitting a request to the registration office. BYU students have control of what information is listed on the Internet.
If a BYU student wants to unlist their address, they can go through Route Y and through the personal information link. By clicking on unlist, a student can determine if they was their information to be listed on the directory.
?We have the privacy and protection of our students in mind,? said UVSC President William Sederburg in a press release. ?We regret parents and students may have received unwelcome mailings as a result of information previously made available to the public. We want to be positive partners with those we serve in our communities.?