Sacre bleu! Student privacy breached

Sacre bleu! Student privacy breached
French Dept. Oversteps the Maginot Line

Sarah Robson

A senior Victoria University lecturer has breached student privacy by accessing a student’s records for non-academic purposes.

Salient News Editor Angela Mabey’s student records were accessed last week by Senior Lecturer in French Dr Myreille Pawliez.

The breach of privacy came to light after Pawliez sent an email to Mabey’s personal email address to respond to a story appearing in the last issue of Salient.

When questioned by Mabey, Pawliez admitted that she had accessed Mabey’s student records to find her email address.

Mabey says her Salient email address is freely available in the magazine and on the Salient website. She is disappointed a lecturer has breached her privacy.

"I am not, and have never been, enrolled in a paper in the French department.

"This lecturer accessed my student record for a completely inappropriate reason."

Pawliez is the course coordinator for FREN112. Salient last week reported that some students in FREN112 were told they had to withdraw from the course because they had completed some NCEA French credits.

Online course information says there are no restrictions placed on entry to the course.

The students were re-enrolled in the course after they sought advocacy support from VUWSA.

“The university has very clear internal protocols regarding the accessing and use of information held in student records, and this is an issue I view extremely seriously,” says Professor Deborah Willis, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean for the Humanities and Social Sciences Faculty Office.

“I am investigating these allegations to see whether or not there has been a breach of university protocols.”

VUWSA President Max Hardy says that the use of student records for non-academic purposes is “totally inappropriate” and it is an issue that VUWSA will be following up.

Salient will follow this story as the investigation continues.

This story was syndicated by the Aotearoa Student Press Association via Salient www.salient.org.nz
http://www.salient.org.nz/news/sacre-bleu-student-privacy-breached

ENDS

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