We received an interesting fund-raising letter from a college that we support. It is a Christian School that has chosen to accept no federal aid, grants or loans for itself or its students. That narrows the choices down, doesn’t it? The president was attending a meeting hosted by the State Council of Higher Education for the presidents of private colleges and universities in the state. He shared what he learned about that state and how it is invading the privacy of graduates in that state.
Through data bases that the schools are required to maintain and share with the federal government and organized by Social Security Numbers the state issues a “detailed database of everyone’s personal education and salary history!” (emphasis in original). This was in place in his state but he does not offer a comforting word. He observes, “Bilateral agreements among unemployment compensation systems in other states will eventually catch everyone.” And of course the most chilling is, “And the feds have graduation data on all the individuals, because every college that takes federal money is required by law to provide it, organized by Social Security Number.” (emphasis in original)
Is this the end of the world? Not by itself. I am sure that the most honorable intentions are presented but how many of you gave permission for your personal information to be used this way.
The data bases keep growing and you are in them.
This college president was concerned about privacy but even more the philosophical attitude that says income of graduates is the most important marker of a successful college. He points out that many of their graduates go to work at nonprofit organizations and many continue on for advanced degrees at places like Harvard and Yale. On this measurement scale they would drag down the average for the college even though they were being very successful.
How do you measure a successful school? It is not as easy as governments proclaim.
homo unius libri
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