Editor’s note: During the ongoing construction at Wescoe Hall, Kansan reporter Tyler Harbert recovered papers from several empty first floor offices. The papers turned out to be graded blue books and essays, along with add/drop forms. All documents contained student information, some including grades and identification numbers.

The story below is Harbert’s account of how the materials were left in public and the University’s response. As of Tuesday evening, all documents were returned to the University for disposal.

When construction began on the first floor of Wescoe Hall several weeks ago, doors were flung wide, furniture hauled out and debris scattered.

Left to the wave of office remodeling was anything the former occupants didn’t deem worthy of saving. Some of those items included blue books, graded student essays and schedule change forms containing student names and identification numbers.

“We regret it,” said Lynn Bretz, director of University communications. “It shouldn’t have happened.”

A number of private records can be accessed with a student’s school identification number.

Calls were made to several offices, including the Bursar’s Office, Watkins Memorial Health Center and the Office of the University Registrar, in an attempt to access records over the phone using only the reporter’s name and identification number.

The Bursar’s Office released financial information, including tuition balance as well as scholarship and financial aid information.

The Office of the University Registrar said an online form would need to be filled out to get a transcript copy. The reporter said he could put his address, name and student identification number on the form, but that he had lost his Social Security number. The office said the student number would suffice for a copy of his transcript.

The health center referred questions to an online authorization for use disclosure of information form at www.studenthealth.ku.edu.

Joe Gillespie, associate director of Information Management at the health center, said the center doesn’t expect a Social Security number when records are accessed, but it does need a student’s birth date and identification number.

“We do compare signatures,” Gillespie said. “If we have any concerns we call that person ask them to come in and show identification.”

He said students trying to access their records do not have to go to the center in person.

“We take this very seriously,” Gillespie said. “There have been times we’ve had a concern and we say to the person, ‘We need to see your face.’”

About a dozen of those items were recovered from several offices on the first floor of Wescoe before a new white wall and a sign that read “Danger construction site authorized personnel only” blocked the entries to the construction zone.

Aaron Childers, a supervisor with Olathe-based RMT Construction Co., which was contracted for the Wescoe remodeling, said all of the desks and materials that could be salvaged from downstairs Wescoe were kept or recycled.

“Basically when we took this space our contract said anything here was ours to dispose of,” Childers said.

He said all of the notebooks and paperwork were taken to N.R. Hamm Quarry Inc., 16920 Third St.

The documents that weren’t taken to the quarry have remained locked in The Kansan newsroom and removed only to contact the students they belong to.

“Honestly, I don’t know what it was doing there in the first place,” said Rachel Hoge, Olathe senior, when told that a schedule change form belonging to her was recovered in Wescoe.

The form was dated and stamped March 5, 2007 by the Office of the University Registrar. Hoge filled out the document, complete with her confidential student identification number, to withdraw from an English class she had been taking.

Hoge said knowing her information was floating around wasn’t comforting, but she wasn’t concerned it would fall into the wrong hands.

“Maybe it was an accident,” she said. “I’m not super worried about it.”

Another schedule change form belonging to Lindsay Fetter, St. Louis senior, was also recovered. She said she had been through this before.

“My declaration of major form was lost,” she said. “I couldn’t enroll and I had to redo it. I don’t know if they misplaced it or what.”

Her schedule change form, dated and stamped April 19, 2007 by the Office of the University Registrar, was also used to drop an English class.

“I had too heavy of a load and that class was the most time consuming so I withdrew,” Fetter said.

She said she wasn’t too concerned her private information would be stolen from her because most offices require a password to access that information, but she said that doesn’t mean she wants her number leaked.

“That’s kind of weird; kind of makes me feel uncomfortable,” Fetter said. “It shouldn’t be sitting around in the basement of Wescoe.”

Bretz said the mistake was an opportunity for the University to reiterate the importance of student privacy to people as they return from summer break.

Bretz said there was no University-wide policy on the disposal of students’ materials, but that the process was done differently from school to school.

She said the University wanted to annualize its privacy training and ensure the message gets through to all of the schools.

“Good can come out of episodes like this,” Bretz said.

— Edited by Joe Caponio and Ben Smith