Students identities protected

Students will no longer approach campus offices and be asked for their Social Security Number at the counter.

“We are not asking for SSNs anymore because it is a breech of security,” said Ana Edwards, Information Technology project coordinator. “We are trying to protect student identity.”

Edwards said that after a successful trial run in December, magnetic card readers are now operating in the testing, financial aid offices and registrar’s office and will soon be implemented in the business office.

Paul Jones, vice president for institutional research and enrollment management, said the use of the card readers puts a heavier emphasis on the Bobcat Card.

“Students will have to make sure that they have their Bobcat Card with them,” Jones said. “We want to protect your (Social Security) number.”

Jones said other schools around Georgia are incorporating similar card systems to protect student privacy.

“There are a number of schools in our system that are at the same stage we are, or have recently made the conversion to a student ID number,” Jones said.

Boyd said the Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Southern University and Kennesaw University have already switched over to a new identification system that uses a student ID in place of a SSN.

Georgia Tech junior Marc Seaman said he likes the system that is now in use at Georgia Tech.

“I don’t like saying my SSID out loud,” Seaman said. “I’m kind of glad we have this system.”

Alex Carson, who recently resumed his junior year at GC&SU, said he appreciates the strides GC&SU has made to protect personal information.

“When I came here I was required to give the last four digits of my SSN because I did not have my Bobcat Card yet,” said Carson. “It never occurred to me before that identity theft could be a problem, but I’m glad GC&SU has decided to switch to a more protective system.”

Ed Boyd, assistant chief information officer for the division of technology solutions, said individual SSNs are not actually on the card, only a numerical code that can be read by the computer to access personal information.

“(The) Board of Regents has mandated that all university systems change to a generic student ID,” Edwards said.

Boyd said GC&SU formed a SSN/ID conversion team to figure out how to eliminate as much transference of SSNs as possible.

“We have formed two or three work groups,” said Boyd. “We have a technical work group, a non-technical work group and executive oversight group. The executive oversight group is just there to make sure the other two groups are not going in opposite directions.”

Boyd said the SSN/ID conversion team is now working on changing from the social password used to log into PAWS to a “primary identifier.” He said that students should not expect a change until Fall Semester 2006.

“When we actually convert the social security to another identifier we will have to do a campaign so students will understand that they are using a new number and we will have to tell them what that number is,” Jones said.

According to Jones, this is not an issue that affects students, faculty and staff are required to use their social security number as well.

“It’s an impact not only to students, but also to faculty and staff as well,” said Jones. “It’s not just for student’s protection; it’s for all of us.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 3 2006. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry