Regent Howard received private student information

Jennifer Knight

Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2002 | 11:09 a.m.

Both of the state's universities supplied Regent Linda Howard more than 1,000 pages of private student information last fall that included name, grade records and other details, according to university system documents.

The requests made by Howard are more extensive than previously thought. She has admitted to receiving one set of employee records and two sets of student records.

In October 2001 Howard made requests at both the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the University of Nevada, Reno to obtain the names of all entering freshman from 1997 to 2001, along with their race, any college grades earned so far, name of high school and high school grade point average.

Howard requested slightly different information for UNLV graduates, asking for their names, ethnicity, majors, previous college attended and high school grades.

"It appears to me on the face of it that people's personal rights were violated, if not under federal or state law, at least morally," said Regent Mark Alden, who has been Howard's chief critic.

Howard declined to speak on the record about the requests.

Federal regulations that guard student privacy allow school officials to access student records only for a "legitimate educational purpose."

Howard was chastised by fellow board members last month after it was learned that she had looked at the records of two UNLV students. One student was Hubert Hensen, who called Howard an idiot in UNLV's Rebel Yell newspaper. The other Al Heck, a student leader, disagreed with her during a public forum.

The fallout from Howard's actions prompted Alden to call for her resignation, and caused the University and Community College System chancellor to ask that all institutions provide a detailed report of regents' requests of student records and personnel files over the past two years.

Revelations from those reports show Howard has involved herself in student disciplinary cases, researching private student information and looking into personnel files of at least two university employees at UNLV.

The detailed institutional reports, critics say, shows a pattern of involvement in system issues that oversteps a regent's bounds. The detailed account of all of the information that Howard was able to obtain also raises questions of privacy, legality and proper regent's behavior.

"Our feeling is that Regent Howard and officials who approved such information were inadequately sensitive to the privacy interests that were involved," Gary Peck, executive director of ACLU's Las Vegas chapter, said. "They should have made sure that the student's names were not included,"

Now all requests must go through the chancellor's office.

UNLV's report of regent interaction showed that Howard was more active in her requests than any other regent. In addition to the October 2001 request for information on graduates and entering freshmen, her interactions included:

Howard also made requests in the last year to see the personnel file of County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, who works part time at UNLV. She requested a listing of all individuals who had been promoted in that department along with salary histories, educational backgrounds and past salaries.

The information requests sent in from all institutions revealed that Regent Howard Rosenberg, who is also a UNR professor, had sought the personnel files of two university employees at his institution.

Reports from the Community College of Southern Nevada say that Regent Tom Kirkpatrick had significant involvement in the employment search process for a position that later went to Howard's daughter.

Kirkpatrick complained that an internal search for a position in the athletics department should be opened up. CCSN officials did that, and Byrd applied with a reference from Kirkpatrick on her resume.

Kirkpatrick also asked for the files of two employees at UNLV.

Regent Mark Alden asked for the resumes of finalists for the UNLV baseball head coach position.

According to board bylaws, a regent's job is to set policy that affects the eight institutions they govern. They are considered school officials.

Howard's requests for student records at UNLV alone produced over 1,035 pages and cost more than $1,000 to copy and deliver, university officials said.

Peck said it is important to give Howard the benefit of the doubt when dealing with such issues.

The fact that UNLV and UNR officials included student names is the most disturbing, Sisolak said.

"You're talking probably tens of thousands of students here," Sisolak said. "I see no valid reason why you would need people's names associated with the GPAs."

The regents will address student privacy again next month.

"We are going to be taking a look at tightening some of these rules in December," Regent Thalia Dondero said. "Our job is to look at the budgets and just set policy. A parent can't even look at records. Even the courts would have to get a court order to look at those kinds of things."