Administrators heard student concerns about the LSU directory Tuesday during a focus group lead by the Registrar’s Office, Computing Services and University Relations.
Robert Doolos, University registrar; Cindy Hadden, director of enterprise solutions group; a panel of four students and Holly Houk, associate director of University Relations, discussed the registrar taking student information off the public directory and other options for the PAWS and printed directories.
Doolos said they left campus information for faculty and staff on the public directory, but took all student information off.
Student information is still on the link to the directory from students’ PAWS accounts, but Doolos wanted to get feedback about what to keep on the PAWS directory.
Doolos said he is concerned about two things: safety and flexibility. He wants to give students options about what will appear on the public directory without making it hard for University officials to find students when necessary to contact them.
Denelle Walker, a communication studies freshman, said she likes the idea of having the option for students to choose.
She said she talked to different people and most agreed they want only their name and e-mail address on the directory.
“If people want my phone number, they can e-mail me for it,” Walker said.
She also said no one really wanted their home or local address on the directory.
Jesse Guillory, a construction management senior, said he realizes the concern about the serial killer, but he thinks a person who really wants to find someone will get information from another source.
However, Doolos said the University has a responsibility to do everything to protect its students.
Guillory said the University of Louisiana at Lafayette directory has only names and e-mail addresses of their students, and the directory is well hidden on the Web site.
John Starr, an accounting freshman, said one of his close friends had a stalker this semester, and she was unaware parts of her information could be left off the directory.
He agreed that name and e-mail address only is a good idea.
Doolos said they posted a notice in the schedule booklet explaining withholding information on the directory, but agreed a more proactive measure is needed.
Walker said if students who live on campus do not request to have their room number withheld, the room number appears with a map to the residence hall, information about the hall — such as if card access is required and if it is an all-female hall — and a map of exactly where the room is located inside the resident hall is also accessible.
Hadden said now, phone numbers and addresses are one unit, but can be separated in the future. She said the more flexibility given, the more complicated application becomes.
Doolos said in extreme circumstances, students have the option to place a hold on all of their information, which forces the University to have no record of that student.
However, a hold poses problems in the future, because if a potential employer calls the registrar to confirm a degree of a student with a hold on their information, the University will still have no record of that student.
Doolos also discussed the printed directory, which prints students’ home address and phone number without notifying students beforehand.
The panel of students’ consensus was that the printed directory is not used by the majority of students, so having student information printed in the directory is unnecessary.
“I don’t see the point in wasting trees and stuff,” Starr said. “If students want you to have their information, put it on PAWS.”
However, the contract with the publishing company includes the student information section, Houk said.
“We are looking at the contract closely and are in discussion with the company we have the contract with,” Houk said.
Doolos said the problem with the printed directory is revenue is generated by advertisements placed in the directory.