<p>Department of Defense is set to begin collecting information about high-school and college students this week for a huge new database that is designed to aid military recruiting -- and that some higher-education officials say violates students' privacy rights. </p>
<p>The database will compile personal information about all college students, as well as about high-school students ages 16 to 18. It will include students' birth dates, Social Security numbers, ethnicities, grade-point averages, fields of study, e-mail addresses, and telephone numbers, The Washington Post reported Thursday. </p>
<p>The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 prohibits colleges from releasing many kinds of information about students without their consent. However, the Solomon Amendment -- a decade-old law that allows the federal government to withhold money from colleges that do not provide full access to military recruiters -- lets the Defense Department request student information from institutions that receive federal dollars. </p>
<p>Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, said his reaction to the database was one of "alarm." </p>
<p>"A big database in the sky is being constructed, and it apparently has really loosey-goosey rules about access," he said. "We need to have systems in place to let the military meet its manpower needs, but this may come across as crossing the line." </p>
<p>According to an announcement of the database, published in the Federal Register on May 23, student information will be accessible to "those who require the records in the performance of their official duties." The announcement does not further identify those individuals. </p>
<p>"My suspicion personally is that most Americans would find it quite uncomfortable to know that their children are going to get plugged into a federal database open to virtually anyone on the federal payroll," Mr. Nassirian said. </p>
<p>Sheldon E. Steinbach, vice president and general counsel of the American Council on Education, called concern over the database "anticipatory and speculative." </p>
<p>"Could this emerge to be a significant privacy, First Amendment concern?" he said. "Yes. But there's no evidence at the moment that that is going to happen." </p>
<p>Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman, told the Post that the Defense Department would allow students to opt out of inclusion in the database, although she said their personal information would still be collected for a "suppression file," to ensure that those who declined to be included were not contacted. </p>
<p>But Mr. Nassirian and Kent Greenfield, a law professor at Boston College who has challenged the Solomon Amendment in a case set to be heard by the Supreme Court this fall, are concerned that opting out is not an alternative readily available to students (The Chronicle, May 13). </p>
<p>"People don't really know until it's too late that their personal information is even being gathered," Mr. Greenfield said. </p>
<p>Mr. Nassirian compared the Pentagon database to a proposal under consideration by the Education Department for a "unit record" database to track college students' academic progress. That proposal has come under sharp attack by prominent conservatives (The Chronicle, April 29). </p>
<p>The Defense Department's project is even more comprehensive, Mr. Nassirian said. "I'd be quite surprised if this thing really flies." </p>
<p>"I just don't believe that agencies can embark on something this consequential without Congressional approval," he said. He added that he doubted that "the military's recruiting needs necessitate this level of intrusion on the privacy rights of students." </p>
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<p>Background articles from The Chronicle</p>