Sex offender law causes colleges consternation

Names, birth dates, gender and even Social Security numbers can now be stripped from college applications and sent to Virginia State Police.

The law caused little stir during the General Assembly, but has recently found a new spotlight raising concerns about students’ right to privacy.

The law calls for every two- and four-year college and university in the commonwealth to send applicant’s personal information to state police to be checked against Virginia’s Sex Offender Registry and the national registry.

It is part of a comprehensive tightening of Virginia’s sex offender laws, embedded in a bill that implements 55 statutory changes. The bill requires non-violent sex offenders to register with the state, expanding the registry to about 1,300 individuals.

While enrolled students are protected from such information swapping by the Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Rights Act, the new state law requests the information from students who have applied to the colleges and universities and have been offered acceptance.

Local college leaders are waiting for direction from state police or larger universities to figure out how best to comply. Some college representatives met with state police last week to discuss guidelines, which are expected to be in place by the fall.

“It’s not something where we were involved in the conversation,” said Jonathan Green, dean of Sweet Briar College.

“There are most likely going to be some students that are upset about having to share this information, but it’s the law and there’s not a lot we can do about it,” said Brenda Edson, strategic communications manager for Randolph-Macon Woman’s College.

Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admission Officers, said the law leaves too many important questions unanswered. He said the law does not define how long the police can store the data, if police can use the information for unrelated searches or if the data can be taken off state police grounds.

“It’s an enormous violation of privacy for the 99-plus percent of effected people who are absolutely innocent of any wrongdoing and whose information is handed over willy-nilly to state police,” said Nassirian.

The dangers of unsafe storage hit headlines recently when an employee at the Department of Veterans Affairs had a laptop stolen from his home that contained personal information of about 2.2 million servicemen and reservists.

Lt. Thomas Turner said state police plan to keep student’s personal information for as little time as possible.

He said if a student does not match the sex offender registry, the information will immediately and permanently be deleted. He said no personal information will be taken home with police employees.

If there is a match, Turner said the police will keeps tabs on that individual, make sure the sex offender has not broken any laws and contact the college or university. It is legal for convicted sex offenders to move as long they fill out a change of address within 72 hours of moving.

Turner said the police department is looking for ways to identify individuals without requesting Social Security numbers.

“We’re looking to make this as painless for everyone as possible, including us,” said Turner, assistant division commander for the criminal justice information services division of Virginia State Police.

“We understand the concerns and we’re going to protect the data.”

Sen. Kenneth Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, said the new law will make Virginia’s sex offender registry the most advanced in the nation.

He said colleges are asking applicants to identify themselves as convicted sex offenders, but have no reasonable way to verify the information.

“You could literally have the college and the state housing sex offenders next to potential victims that they would like to be housed next to,” said Stolle, who sponsored the bill in the Senate.

“If my daughter was living next to a sex offender I would kind of like to have that information.”

Green said there has been no problem with sex offenders at Sweet Briar College or other area institutions. He said the college already conducts background checks on both students and employees that work at the on-campus day care center.

“I generally assume that legislation occurs in response to a problem, and at least in the colleges in this area I don’t see a symptom that needed a cure,” he said.