When this story first appeared in the NY Times I had yet another opportunity to marvel at all the energy expended by graduate students doing their term projects. God bless them! Just think if we could harness that energy somehow so that the byproduct would benefit charitable organizations. I guess that’s more or less what happens with the legal clinics, ER room interns and small business development centers (SBDC’s) that various universities operate.
But when it’s a lone researcher digging up these sorts of stories on their own, I have special affection for their stories.
Below is the introductory snippet from the NY Times and the last few paragraphs that tell more about the student. For the full-text Drexel users who have signed into our “Times Select” subscription in the past can follow this link. (For info on our NYTimes Select sub see: LINK
September 1, 2006
Education Dept. Shared Student Data With F.B.I.
By JONATHAN D. GLATER
The Federal Education Department shared personal information on hundreds of student loan applicants with the Federal Bureau of Investigation across a five-year period that began after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the agencies said yesterday.
Under the program, called Project Strikeback, the Education Department received names from the F.B.I. and checked them against its student aid database, forwarding information. Each year, the Education Department collects information from 14 million applications for federal student aid.
Neither agency would say whether any investigations resulted. The agencies said the program had been closed. The effort was reported yesterday by a graduate student, Laura McGann, at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, as part of a reporting project that focused on national security and civil liberties.
