"Unit Record System" would be Big Brother in action

[NewWaveChick1981]

This topic has been hotly debated in the higher education community since its proposal. Today, another administrator and I (I work at a small LIBERAL arts college) got into a discussion about this unbelievable proposal by the Feds to collect academic, financial, and personal data by student on an individual basis, supposedly for legitimate educational purposes. This proposal makes me very angry, because there is a huge potential for noneducational misuse of very personal data. What business is it of the Federal government what major the student had at our school, let alone whether or not the student flunked basic calculus? The Feds already collect summary data of majors, graduation rates, attrition rates, etc., and they require us to report names and SSNs of students receiving Federal financial aid, but why do they need to know how much institutional scholarship or grant they get, or if the Kiwanis Club gave them a $200 outside scholarship? The reporting of all this information would be a horrific burden on schools, and it could be done without the student's knowledge. I guess the Feds just want to build a noneducational dossier on everyone who tries to better themselves through higher education. That way, Big Brother can keep tabs on you, no matter where you go after college. :(

This article from an earlier Chronicle of Higher Education explains a few things about the "unit record system" and its pitfalls. This proposal scares the hell out of me. :( It's yet ANOTHER invasion of privacy disguised as something legitmate.

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http://chronicle.com/weekly/v51/i30/30a00101.htm

From the issue dated April 1, 2005

Proposed Student-Data System Can Be Made Secure, Report Says

Education Department findings do not ease concerns of critics

By KELLY FIELD

Washington

The federal government could collect students' Social Security numbers and other individually identifiable data without compromising their privacy, says a new report on a proposed data-collection system that is supported by state colleges but opposed by private institutions.

The report, which the Education Department submitted to Congress in March, concludes that adequate safeguards are in place to ensure the security of data in the administration's proposed "unit record" system.

The Education Department has argued that the proposed system would allow it to measure a college's performance more accurately by generating better information about retention and graduation rates and by enabling it to track transfer students. It would also allow the department, for the first time, to calculate an institution's net price, or what students actually pay after financial aid is taken into account.

The unit-record plan would replace a system in which colleges report data in summary form about total enrollment, student aid, graduation rates, and other measures.

Supporters, including lobbyists for state colleges and universities, say that the report amounts to an endorsement of the president's plan to test the new statistical system on 1,500 campuses next year.

"This puts to rest the privacy issue that some people are using to derail a simple study," said Travis J. Reindl, director of state-policy analysis for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. "It really makes the case that this is worth looking into."

But critics of the plan, including private-college lobbyists, fear that students' personal information could be used for noneducational purposes.

They call the idea that students could be entered into a central database and tracked for the rest of their lives "chilling."

"There is a clear precedent for federal databases being used for purposes for which they were not originally intended," said David L. Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. "The statistical people at the Department of Education do not have the political might to keep away all of the political interests who will want this data."

Mr. Warren noted that many colleges were moving away from using Social Security numbers as student identifiers because of the threat to individual privacy.

David S. Baime, vice president for government relations at the American Association of Community Colleges, said his association was "initially quite optimistic" about the president's plan, but decided to withhold its support after hearing concerns about student privacy from member institutions.

The ultimate decision on whether the new system will be adopted rests with Congress, which has to give the Education Department the authority to build the system. That could be done in pending legislation to renew the Higher Education Act, which governs most federal student-aid programs.

Mr. Reindl said the prospects for approval were good, given the recent emphasis on accountability in higher education.

Support Unclear in Congress

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate have been relatively quiet on the proposal so far, although Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a New York Democrat who is a member of the education committee, expressed concerns about the plan in November in a letter to Roderick R. Paige, then the secretary of education.

If lawmakers give the go-ahead, the pilot program would require participating colleges to submit to the department "header files" containing each student's name, Social Security number, date of birth, address, race, and gender, along with additional information on course loads and credits, date of degree completion, and financial-aid package.

The files, which would be collected through the existing Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, or Ipeds, would be stored in a permanent database that would not be accessible from the Internet.

Not Easy

Even if security were not a concern, putting the new system into effect would not be easy. According to the report, many institutions would have to upgrade their software, hire new employees to handle the reports, and reconcile varying information systems used by their registrars and institutional-research and financial-aid offices.

The burden would be particularly heavy on small colleges, where there is often only one person in charge of statistical reporting, said James C. Fergerson, director of institutional planning and analysis at Bates College.

The report, "Feasibility of a Student Unit Record System Within the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System," concludes that such issues would need to be worked out in the "design phase" of the system. A copy of the report is available on the Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics Web site (http://nces.ed.gov).
http://chronicle.com
Section: Government & Politics
Volume 51, Issue 30, Page A1