Drake University in Des Moines made a little slip-up. Greek presidents are supposed to receive the grades of their members, so they can monitor academic performance and provide assistance where needed. But they're not supposed to be privy to the marks of other greeks. That would be where the Drake Mistake comes in: Director of Fraternity Sorority Life Chris Juhl actually emailed a spreadsheet of every fraternity brother's and sorority sister's marks—that would be some eight hundred individuals—to every chapter president on campus.
At first, the presidents were merely surprised at receiving such an expected trove of information, but slowly it began to sink in that a major privacy violation had just taken place. "It was like, 'That's a privacy violation. That's kind of a big deal,'" recalled Tyler Boggess, Sigma Phi Epsilon president. "I didn't think too much of it, I thought, 'There must have been a mistake.'" Not just a mistake, a possible crime
Vice Provost for Student Affairs and Academic Excellence Wanda Everage denies any liability, opining that "an inadvertent disclosure, which is promptly discovered and corrected, is not a violation of the law" in a response to queries from the student paper. She also stresses that she obtained written confirmation from every chapter president that the offending records had been destroyed without copying. But any chapter holdouts would have thrown a wrench into the "...and corrected" loophole to university liability. After all, chapter presidents have no obligation to clean up the college's mess. In short, it appears as though the Drake greeks' cooperation pulled Mr Juhl's bacon out of the fire, saving him and the school from potential liability. Perhaps the IFC should hold a disciplinary hearing, and consider imposing a probationary period on the greek office, to see if it can manage its operations better in the future under closer scrutiny.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment