Council Approves Plan to Put Student Photos on Web

Author: Chesley Thurber

At a meeting Monday afternoon, Community Council approved Director of Web Communications Carrie Rampp and Information Technology Services (ITS) to continue with a plan to post student photographs on the College Web site. By as early as next fall, students will have the option of having their identity photographs posted alongside the personal information already provided by the Web site's "People Finder" function.

The plan is intended to allow greater familiarity among students and to enable them to more easily associate names with faces. Community Council Recording Secretary Erin Sullivan '04.5 said that the Council hoped the photographs would "enhance the sense of community" by helping students get to know each other more easily.

In addition, faculty could use the directory to learn the names of their students more quickly. Rampp said that faculty "have already contacted us about a class roster project." Such a project would allow faculty to access an online roster of all the names and photographs of students in their classes.

The photographs would come from the identification photographs taken by the Department of Public Safety for students' MiddCards. Both Rampp and Community Council agreed that students would have the option of choosing whether their photographs would be shown. Students currently have similar options with the personal information already displayed on the College Web site's "People Finder."

By clicking on the "Change Information" text at the top of the first page of the "People Finder" and then entering one's student identification and PIN numbers, a student has the option of selecting whether to allow others on the Middlebury network to view information such as campus extension, mailing address and home address. The identification photograph would appear on this list of options and would be set by default to "hide" until the student selected otherwise.

The proposal, however, has also raised fears that the photographs may be used for purposes other than their original intentions.

"The concern [is] that a picture could be taken and superimposed" on another image, said Student Government Association President Brian Elworthy '02.5.

Such use would be a violation of College policy. The statement on the "People Finder" page states, "Any unauthorized or inappropriate use of the photos or graphics contained within is forbidden." Following the suggestion of Community Council member Michael Silberman '02.5, the photographs will be posted in such a way that they cannot be copied and pasted into another document or saved by right-clicking the mouse. Nevertheless, "there are no guarantees" that a photo would not be used in such a way said Director of Systems and Network Services Tom Cutter. "There might be some discouragements, but we cannot fully prevent it," he continued.

Rampp pointed out that once a photo was posted, "it is essentially public domain." She emphasized, however, that while it may be possible for someone with limited computer knowledge to copy a photograph from the Web site, it would be extremely difficult to replace or distort the image actually displayed on the page.

If a student's photograph were used inappropriately, Rampp and ITS would be able to provide a list of all users who had recently accessed that page with exact dates and times. This would by no means identify the perpetrator but may help to narrow the possibilities.

Despite the security fears, Rampp, Cutter and Community Council are optimistic about the plan. This past fall, faculty photographs were posted on the electronic directory, a project that has received positive feedback. The Council is already considering working with the Human Resources Office to make staff photographs available as well.

"I think what you're hearing from us is the green light to go ahead," said Dean of Student Affairs and Co-Chair of Community Council Ann Hanson to Rampp and Cutter. The final proposal will be subject to a final review by Hanson and the Council before implementation next fall.