Forty to fifty class rosters including student names and in some incidents social security numbers have without authorization been given to representatives of College Club, an off-campus organization trying to promote Internet and voice mail services at Cal State Long Beach.
In a memorandum circulated by Keith Polakoff, associate vice-president for academic affairs, all faculty were warned to be aware that "it is illegal under the Federal Privacy Law or Buckley Amendment to give out the names, addresses, telephone numbers and especially the social security numbers of students to any commercial venture."
In the same memo, College Club representatives are said to have requested and received from the professors a list of studentŐs names attending the class "in at least one religious studies class and presumably in other classes in that and other departments."
David Brown, academic relations person representing College Club at the CSULB campus, said that he along with his partner David Morelli have been in "40 to 50 classrooms at CSULB."
"Professors invited college club representatives into their classrooms to explain the college club e-mail access by telephone aspect of the college club system," Brown said. "In order to set the system up, we need the names of the people in the class."
Brown said it was procedure for College Club representatives to receive a list of names after talking to a class of students.
There is no way to set up the system without a list of student's names, according to Brown.
"Some professors gave out the class list, some gave the lists with the social security numbers on them and some were cut in half," Brown said.
Both Brown and Morelli said they would not comment as to which classes they spoke in and what professors gave them which lists.
When asked exactly how many class rosters with social security numbers he had received, Brown said "very few gave us the social security numbers."
He would commit to saying that he had received at least one class list with social security numbers.
When asked if he had ever received a list with social security numbers, Morelli said "I don't think so."
The system Brown and Morelli have been presenting in CSULB classrooms enables the professor to send one e-mail through the College Club website to all of the students in his or her class or classes.
The e-mail message can then be accessed by computer or by telephone.
"Students who don't have a computer are not penalized," Brown said.
Although Brown and Morelli insist that their system only helps students and faculty communicate, campus officials say they are in direct violation of campus policies.
"They have violated policy," Polakoff said. "If they are caught on campus doing it again, we will escort them off campus. We will not permit them in the classrooms."
Polakoff warned in his memo to the faculty that College Club is not an approved CSULB organization.
He said in the memo, "it is inappropriate for representatives of this organization to be given class time in which to promote their products or services."
"He told me he had been authorized by the A.S.," Stanley Jones, religious studies associate professor said. "I quizzed him very directly. He said he was subcontracted by the Associated Students to set up a web site."
"He asked me, have you guys talked to the A.S. and I said I have met Naomi Rodriguez, Davian Freeman and all of the others," Morelli said. "I never used the word subcontracted."
Jones said Brown and Morelli were approaching everyone in the department.
"They came to me two weeks in a row, sitting in my office trying to get me to use their service," Jones said. "They did not tell me they were a private organization."
Jones said he did not allow Brown or Morelli to talk in his class nor did he give them a list of student's names in his class.
"I went to a number of religious studies classes," Morelli said. "I talked to half of the people in that hall."
Morelli said that he was encouraged by Jeffery Broughton, religious studies associate professor, to "talk to other faculty and go to their classes."
All religious studies faculty were contacted by the Daily Forty-Niner for information regarding the College Club issue.
Broughton, Robert Eisenman, Edward Hughes, Peter Lowentrout and Carlos Piar did not return the Daily Forty-Niner's call to comment on this issue.
Tony Battaglia, religious studies chairman and Bradley Hawkins, religious studies lecturer, said they did not give class lists to College Club.
Freshman Catherine Rojo, who is enrolled in Hawkins' Intro to World Religions Eastern class said that a College Club representative gave a presentation about the website and e-mail services in Hawkins' class two weeks ago.
Rojo was given a College Club access card with her name pre-printed on it. The card also had Rojo's access name for the system already established on it.
Rojo said that she did not give her name to any College Club representative prior to receiving her card.