UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, March 10, 1997
5A
Student names for sale
Telephone directories make information purchasable
By Nicholas C. Charalambous
Kansas staff writer
It floods into our mailboxes every week, and usually we pitch it straight into the trash. But last week's University-wide direct mail solicitation from Citibank raised a few student eebrows.
Citibank's letters, boldly using students' full names and campus addresses on every piece of paper, reminded graduating seniors and graduate students at the University of Kansas that now would be a great time for a Citibank credit card.
It also included the student's preprinted field of study on the application form.
That caught the eye of Shelly Wachter. Topeka senior.
"I assumed the University sells our addresses because I use my home address for catalogs and subscriptions," she said. "When I saw that Citibank had my major, I thought maybe the University could have sold other information that I have no control over."
Wachter was wrong on both count
The University is not allowed to sell student information by law, said Bob Turvie, assistant University registrar.
"I get students that call me occasionally and say, 'Will you quit selling my name,'" he said. "It's a big issue for students. They don't want their information being sold to every credit card company in the world."
"We do field questions from companies wanting access to our lists, but we refer them to the published directory and say they could make use of that if they wish."
affairs, said that student information in University files was used only for educational purposes.
Linda Mullens, assistant vice chancellor for student
American Student Lists of Long Island, N.Y., computerizes the printed directories of more than 1,700 U.S. universities and sells the information to Citibank and more than 1,000 other companies. The charge is about 5 cents per name and address, company president Marty Lerner said.
The KU phone directory includes coded information about each student's year in school and field of study, as well as campus address, campus phone number and home address. Students who want information withheld must write to the University registrar by the end of the first week of the fall semester, according to the University of Kansas Student Records policy.
Mary Mendler, Citibank vice president of public affairs, said that a major was not a criterion for granting credit but was used to personalize information sent to students. Greater personalization had produced good results, she said.
"Consumers want to know that we're looking out for their needs. If we're making them offers that don't apply to their lives, they say, 'Why are you sending me this?' Mendler said.
Victor Karter, president of A Lists Unlimited, a New York, N.Y., list brokerage firm that boasts that it can purchase every list in the industry targeted to every possible category of person, said the question of invasion of privacy was spurious because the information was publicly available.
"Nothing is sent out that is offensive," he said, "and lots of information is sent out that could benefit a student."
Student directory listings
Type 1 address Where a student will receive mail when classes are in session
Type 2 address
Where a student will receive mail when classes are NOT in session
Level codes:
1- Freshman 5- Fifth year of a five
2- Sophomore year program
3- Junior 9- Non-degree seeking
4- Senior 6- and G- Graduate
KEY
School codes:
A- College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
B- Business
C- Applied English Center
D- Education
E- Engineering
F- Fine Arts
G- Graduate school
H- Allied Health
J- Journalism and Mass Communications
L- Law
M-Medicine
N-Nursing
P-Pharmacy
R-R Architecture and Urban Design
S-Social Welfare
Z-University special student
Some say 'I love you,' others send their love via airplane
Many have trouble verbally telling loved ones their thoughts
Love is in the air.
By Elena Macaluso Special to the Kansan
At least it is at Wings Unlimited, an Olathe shop specializing in airborne message banners.
"It's quite popular to fly messages such as 'Will you marry me?'" Hockett said. Hockett also receives requests for "Happy Anniversary" and "I Love You."
Pat Hockett, part-owner of Wings Unlimited, said that although she dealt mainly with business advertisers, she also received requests for personal messages of love. And she welcomed them.
Hockett said that she received many requests throughout the year to fly personal messages but that she received more during the summer.
Hockett also said many people requested her planes to fly over Kansas City Chiefs or Royals games and that the planes also had flown over houses, lakes and restaurants.
Why do people go to such extreme measures to get someone to notice
them?
Dennis Dailey, professor of social welfare, said that in many ways the grand gesture was easier than a face-to-face confrontation.
Dailey, a sex therapist who has a private counseling practice in Lawrence, said it was easier to send flowers, chocolates or even write someone's name in the sky than to sit down and tell them how you feel.
"What people are doing is struggling around with ways to say, 'I love you,'" Dailey said. "All of those things are easier ways of attempting to connect with another person, to take the risk, to let another person know how you feel."
What was so strange, Dailey said, is that real communication, sitting down and telling people directly how one feels, often works better than the most outlandish plan.
Writing someone's name in the sky doesn't mean anything, Dailey said. The person reading it has absolutely no idea what the person sending the message means. They will fill in whatever they think love means and hope that they are right.
However, Dalley said that many people were afraid that if they told someone they loved them, they would be asked why.
"I love you' doesn't mean crap," he said.
But for many people, telling someone they love them face-to-face is a lot riskier emotionally than hiring a pilot, Dailey said.
KU students have been on both the giving and receiving end of schemes to say "I love you" or "I like you."
One Valentine's Day, a man whom Melissa Schmitz, Topeka senior, had been dating for only a few weeks gave her more than two dozen roses. He didn't give them to her at all once.
"He followed me around everywhere I went with a rose, but he would get there five minutes early so other people had to give them to me," Schmitz said.
That was four years ago, and they are still together.
Matt Reetz, Omaha, Neb., sophomore, once left a rose with a note under the car windshield of a girl he admired.
"I dated the girl for about a year and a half," Reetz said. But he has not always been so successful.
Reetz said he tried to get a waitress to notice him by sitting in her section. Although it did not turn into a romance, it was a friendship.
When students consider the cost and trouble involved in such elaborate measures, they may decide that the conventional method of meeting people is best after all. Reetz agreed.
"The bus works. That's a good place. You just sit next to somebody you're interested in," Reetz said.
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