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TOP STORIES FOR WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 2005 Criticism Mounts for Federal Student Database Kuali Project Gets Boost Hackers Hit CSU Chico UNLV SEVIS Database Compromised Paying Students to Learn in Mississippi Study Blames Users for Encouraging Spam CRITICISM MOUNTS FOR FEDERAL STUDENT DATABASE The U.S. Department of Education has proposed creating a national database of college students, but the idea has drawn heavy criticism for its use of Social Security numbers to identify individuals. The current system for reporting student progress, the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, reports aggregate data for institutions and cannot accurately track students who start at one college or university and transfer to another. The proposed database would track individuals, offering more accurate data for graduation rates and other statistics, but some argue that those gains would come at the expense of student privacy. David Baime, vice president of government relations for the American Association of Community Colleges, said that despite the benefits to community colleges in particular from such a system, his organization opposes the plan "primarily due to privacy concerns, expressed to us by our members." David L. Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, said, "The proposal takes us down the slippery slope toward Big Brother oversight of college students, and of those same citizens beyond their college years." Inside Higher Ed, 23 March 2005 http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/03/23/unit KUALI PROJECT GETS BOOST Organizers of the Kuali Project this week announced a significant donation and the addition of four new members. The Kuali Project is an effort to develop open source software for financial systems in higher education. Original partners in the program--Indiana University, the University of Hawaii, the National Association of College and University Business Officers, and the R-Smart Group (a company that hopes to sell support services to colleges that install the software)--will be joined by Cornell University, Michigan State University, San Joaquin Delta College, and the University of Arizona, each of which will pay between $500,000 and $2.5 million to join. Partners in the project have the opportunity to influence its development. The grant announced, totaling $2.5 million, comes from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Software produced by the project will be released in stages over the next two and a half years and will be available for free. In addition, organizers said the software will be modular, allowing an institution to install only the parts that it wants, without installing the whole system. Chronicle of Higher Education, 22 March 2005 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2005/03/2005032201t.htm HACKERS HIT CSU CHICO Joe Wills, spokesperson for California State University, Chico, said that hackers who broke into servers at the university may have accessed confidential records on 59,000 individuals associated with the institution. Wills said that early investigation of the attack, which happened three weeks ago, indicates that the perpetrators might have been trying to download files when they discovered the confidential information. Social Security numbers were part of the compromised records, which included students, former students, prospective students, and faculty. Reuters, 21 March 2005 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=7964776 UNLV SEVIS DATABASE COMPROMISED The FBI and officials at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas (UNLV) are investigating an incident in which hackers gained access to the school's Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) database. SEVIS is the federal program that colleges and universities must use to track international students and faculty. According to a university spokesperson, the break-in was uncovered while it was happening, prompting optimism that the damage was thereby minimized. The university said that the hackers had access to personal records, including birth dates, countries of origin, passport numbers, and Social Security numbers, on about 5,000 current and former students and faculty. Chronicle of Higher Education, 21 March 2005 (sub. req'd) http://chronicle.com/prm/daily/2005/03/2005032102t.htm PAYING STUDENTS TO LEARN IN MISSISSIPPI Former Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale has offered millions of dollars to students in Mississippi if the state legislature agrees to do three things: fully fund education, improve teachers' pay, and perform an annual audit of how federal funds are spent. If legislators agree to the terms, Barksdale will give $5,000 each to any student who graduates from a Mississippi high school, and those who go on to graduate from any of the state's eight public universities would receive another $5,000. Mississippi routinely ranks at or near the bottom of achievement among its students. Barksdale said his offer was prompted by reading about the state's low academic achievement, which many blame on inadequate funding. In 2000, Barksdale donated $100 million to fund the Barksdale Reading Institute, an organization that provides literacy training for underachieving students in Mississippi. Legislators are considering the offer, but differences between the state House and Senate may prevent the state from approving the proposal. San Jose Mercury News, 23 March 2005 http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/11209527.htm STUDY BLAMES USERS FOR ENCOURAGING SPAM A new report lays much of the blame for the ongoing problem of spam at the feet of computer users who open spam messages and even buy products or services advertised in spam. According to the survey, conducted by Mirapoint and the Radicati Group, nearly one-third of users have opened such messages, and one in ten has made a purchase. The report calls such actions "bad e-mail behavior" and said it encourages not just marketers but con artists to continue sending vast amounts of spam. Many adult-themed e-mail messages lure computer users into visiting Web sites that then install spyware or other malicious code. Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for security firm Sophos, agreed that users bear much of the responsibility for spam's continued presence. "If no one responded to junk e-mail and didn't buy products sold in this way," he said, "then spam would be as extinct as the dinosaurs." BBC, 23 March 2005 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4375601.stm ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your settings, or access the Edupage archive, visit http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639 Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName To UNSUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SIGNOFF Edupage If you have subscription problems, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE RESOURCES The EDUCAUSE Resource Center is a repository for information concerning use and management of IT in higher education. 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