Privacy concerns may lead to policy changes following reports of advisers being granted Blackboard observer status, with the issue being raised in a faculty senate meeting on Thursday, Aug. 31.

Blackboard observer status grants permission for a user to view Blackboard pages of a course that another user is in, a feature created to allow parents to check a student’s course.

The issue was brought up in the meeting by Dr. Shawn Schulenberg, Chair of the Faculty Senate and Chair of the Political Science Department, after learning about it in a meeting with other faculty to discuss observer status.

“We were all in a little bit of shock that access had already been given,” Schulenberg said at the faculty senate meeting. “I can honestly say that it was then when the employees realized they did something wrong.”

One of these instances includes an occurrence on Aug. 9 in which an athletic adviser submitted an IT service ticket requesting observer status which was granted. The ticket specifically requested access to the course due dates and grades of students.

On Aug. 15, IT granted seven academic advisers observer status for 467 students, against proper procedures. Two weeks later, access was removed, only after audits revealed 25 course sections to 22 different course instructors were accessed in the time that the observer status was granted. 

“I have some empathy and understanding,” Schulenberg said. “We’re going to have a future conversation, maybe, about a policy change issue, here.”

The concerns raised questions of not only student privacy but instructor privacy as well, with multiple members of the faculty senate raising questions and concerns following the announcement. At the time of the meeting, the instructors had yet to be notified of the breach.