Arizona State U. Under Fire After Harris Campaign Accessed Data to Text 70,000 Students
“If Kamala Harris has access to all of Arizona college students’ phone numbers, what ELSE do they have?”
This needs to be investigated. Who asked for the data and who gave it to them? The fact that this happened in Arizona is not a coincidence.
The College Fix reports:
ASU under fire after Harris campaign accesses data to text 70,000 students
The Kamala Harris presidential campaign texted 70,000 Arizona State University students and a total of 150,000 students statewide, urging them to vote for her. Now, students, a professor, and a state representative are demanding answers.
College Republicans at ASU announced on Twitter and Instagram that the Harris campaign texted “students from [all] Arizona universities,” including ASU, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Arizona.
“If Kamala Harris has access to all of Arizona college students’ phone numbers, what ELSE do they have?” the group stated.
The posts included a screenshot of the text ASU students received, which reads:
Hi Sun Devils, it’s Kamala Harris. I wanted to remind you that the deadline to register to vote in Arizona is Monday, October 7. Thanks to record turnout among college students in 2020, I am Vice President of the United States Today.
Tim Walz and I are the underdogs in this election, but student voters could make the difference. We need your support to win. As an Arizona State University student, you can register and vote in Arizona. Your vote is your voice and your power. You must not let anybody take your power from you.
Carson Carpenter, president of College Republicans at ASU, told The College Fix in a phone interview that the group confirmed the report by analyzing enrollment data from the universities involved and speaking with many students, most of whom received the text.
They found that recent transfer students did not receive it, possibly because they are not yet in the university databases. Additionally, parents and alumni received the texts, suggesting the actual number of recipients could be higher.
“We’re going to be submitting a [Freedom of Information Act] request very soon to understand how that information was supposedly public,” Carpenter said. He said ASU needs to do a better job protecting student data.
The students are requesting all communications related to the decision to provide student contact information for political use.
Students want an answer “on how it’s public information, and we haven’t heard anything from these universities clarifying that,” the student said.
An ASU spokesperson, who asked not to be named, told The Fix in an email statement: “Under Arizona Public Records Law, ASU’s records are public unless there is a specific confidentiality requirement.”
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Comments
whatttttt
people need to be fired and she needs to never be hired
isnt this the same school that wouldnt release the info on the blm who stabbed the white female…oh yes it is
An ASU spokesperson, who asked not to be named, told The Fix in an email statement: “Under Arizona Public Records Law, ASU’s records are public unless there is a specific confidentiality requirement.”
Really?!? You are saying that students’ personal information is public record because they enrolled in your college? Does that include all the financial data from them and their family that is required to be reported in order to receive financial aid? This is either total BS or Arizona legislature desperately needs to address this scandalous situation immediately. I know which of these two possibilities my money is on.
What a betrayal of the university’s dignity and the privacy of its students. Surely, there was some arcane law broken. Surely the state, which supports this university, could, for example, pull its tax free status because it has engaged in politics. Surely retribution is on its way. Or the university and the state will be besmirched by this.
“Surely the state, which supports this university, could, for example, pull its tax free status”
The three state universities are official departments of the state. The suggestion is logically impossible.
Surely Arizona’s public universities are thoroughly familiar with the provisions of FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, 20 U.S..C. sec 1232g — https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/20/1232g ).
The implementing regulations are at 34 C.F.R. Part 99 ( https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/ferpa#0.1_se34.1.99_131 ).
I, on the other hand, am not at all familiar with FERPA. However, as I read this, it looks like the phone numbers are “directory information” as defined in the statute, and in consequence the university only has to give the student and parents notice that the information may be made public, and an opportunity to demand that it be kept private. I expect that there was some boilerplate notice somewhere in the admission packet sent to new students.
The penalty for not following FERPA is that the university can lose its federal funding. However, it’s the Department of Education that decides whether to investigate and pursue the matter. All students and their parents can do is complain to the Department.
That’s my quick reading of the statute. If anyone has any experience with it, or has done the research, I’d love to know more or be corrected.