I'm on the faculty of another small liberal arts school. I don't know why SSNs were passed around in this case, but other sensitive information is routinely shared among "officers of the college" (faculty, administrators, academic staff) for some purposes. For example, when our school evaluates candidates for Phi Beta Kappa--which, incidentally, would be my guess for how this professor had the information at Miami--quite a lot of people need to see transcript information. We also produce an anonymized version of the information for student members of the chapter. We try to secure the information carefully--keeping electronic versions protected, shredding the paper. The Miami violation is clearly egregious. I mention our circumstances to explain why professors sometimes have access to this kind of information about students.
"Professors get paid over $70,000 a year"? Well, some do. At most types of institutions, full professors average more than $70,000. But most full-time professors are not full professors, and a great many college classes are taught by graduate students and adjunct faculty who in many cases fare worse than pizza deliverers (literally). For the full-time numbers, see http://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v50/i33/33a01301.h tm
Oh, and I figure I work about 20 hours/week/course, plus 5-20 hours for advising and administrative duties. Given my school's teaching load, that's 45-80 hours a week while classes are in session. And 25-30 when they aren't. These numbers are very typical, I think, based on talking to many professors at many kinds of institutions, from community colleges to the Ivies. Tenured professors do have job security, but most people who teach college courses are not tenured. Some faculties are unionized, but many (I would guess a strong majority) are not, and unionization of the faculty is illegal at some kinds of institutions. In short, you're making a good point about the differences in professorial attention to writing, but you have no bloody idea what you're talking about regarding the professional lives of college teachers.
I basically agree with the sentence, "If a professor does not care enough to read my papers, then to hell with him." (Or her.) But students can generally avoid disaster scenarios by choosing institutions and professors within institutions who value careful teaching. Some institutions punish professors for putting a lot of time into teaching. Many others (including mine, a small liberal arts college) reward careful teaching first. Here, a professor grading with a computer algorithm would be scandalous. And in any institution, a little snooping around in advance helps a lot.
I switched two months ago from dialup to DSL. I stuck with dialup so long because I had high-speed access at work and wanted to save money. However, I used the Net enough from home that I required a second phone line. The price for DSL recently dropped enough that I could get DSL (with installation and modem) for almost exactly the same price as my dial-up service and second phone line.
I live in a rural situation that will become more and more common as broadband spreads: I have no access to cheaper dial-up ISPs (none of the big companies, including AOL, have local lines here, so $19.99/month local options are the only game in town), but I do have one option for DSL and one for cable broadband.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm on the faculty of another small liberal arts school. I don't know why SSNs were passed around in this case, but other sensitive information is routinely shared among "officers of the college" (faculty, administrators, academic staff) for some purposes. For example, when our school evaluates candidates for Phi Beta Kappa--which, incidentally, would be my guess for how this professor had the information at Miami--quite a lot of people need to see transcript information. We also produce an anonymized version of the information for student members of the chapter. We try to secure the information carefully--keeping electronic versions protected, shredding the paper. The Miami violation is clearly egregious. I mention our circumstances to explain why professors sometimes have access to this kind of information about students.
Oh, and I figure I work about 20 hours/week/course, plus 5-20 hours for advising and administrative duties. Given my school's teaching load, that's 45-80 hours a week while classes are in session. And 25-30 when they aren't. These numbers are very typical, I think, based on talking to many professors at many kinds of institutions, from community colleges to the Ivies. Tenured professors do have job security, but most people who teach college courses are not tenured. Some faculties are unionized, but many (I would guess a strong majority) are not, and unionization of the faculty is illegal at some kinds of institutions. In short, you're making a good point about the differences in professorial attention to writing, but you have no bloody idea what you're talking about regarding the professional lives of college teachers.
I basically agree with the sentence, "If a professor does not care enough to read my papers, then to hell with him." (Or her.) But students can generally avoid disaster scenarios by choosing institutions and professors within institutions who value careful teaching. Some institutions punish professors for putting a lot of time into teaching. Many others (including mine, a small liberal arts college) reward careful teaching first. Here, a professor grading with a computer algorithm would be scandalous. And in any institution, a little snooping around in advance helps a lot.
I live in a rural situation that will become more and more common as broadband spreads: I have no access to cheaper dial-up ISPs (none of the big companies, including AOL, have local lines here, so $19.99/month local options are the only game in town), but I do have one option for DSL and one for cable broadband.