CE A a BE ES ETE

College moves to comply
with privacy act

An individual’s right to privacy versus the public’s right to know --
British Columbia’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act
tries to balance those two notions.

And in November, the Act was extended to cover colleges and
universities, which has led to a new College policy that outlines rules for
compliance with the Act.

For freedom of information, the College now must maintain a
directory of all records under its jurisdiction available to the public, make
a routine public release of non-confidential information, respond to
written formal applications for other information and has an obligation to
assist the requester. (Faculty research and lecture material are not official
College records and are therefore excluded.)

On the protection of privacy, the College must produce a Directory of
Personal Information Banks, and collect only the personal information
for which it has a legal authority to collect. The individual has a right to
review the information for accuracy, and the College must make
reasonable security arrangements to protect personal information.

Director of Learning Resources Virginia Chisholm is coordinator of
the College’s efforts to respond to the Act, and she says that some
departments are re-examining the kind of personal information they
collect from students and employees.

“T’ve requested that all departments who are compiling personal
information review their forms to make sure that they are only asking for
what they need, and have a legal authority to do so,” says Chisholm.

“It’s forced us to think more carefully about what we’ re doing.” she
says. “For example, for community users of the library, we used to ask to
see their driver’s licenses as a form of identification. But now we longer
record the driver’s license number. We do not need that information and
we have no authority to collect it. The Act makes it clear that the College
can only take personal information that it requires to do its job.”

Personal information can only be collected from that person, and it
cannot be released to a third party. Some aspects of the Act are difficult
to interpret, says Chisholm, simply because the rules are so new that
precedents for rules in question have not been established. For example,
the Act specifies that records must be kept, but doesn’t provide a time
frame.

For more information on the Freedom of Information and Protection of
Privacy Act, or on the related College policy, call Virginia Chisholm at
527-5182. 8

Safe Walk continued from page 1

 

“Everyone I’ ve spoken with has said they feel safer having a program
such as Safe Walk around,” says Spear. “The experience everywhere has
been that the more people find out about these programs, the more they
begin to use them.”

While the main priority for Safe Walk will be providing escorts, team
members will also patrol under-travelled areas of the College. The service is
currently available from 6 pm to 10:30 pm on Mondays to Thursdays.
Volunteers may be available for some special events on Fridays. Safe Walk
is supported by both Douglas College and the Student Society, and has also
received backing from the New Westminster Police Service. The police
provided Criminal Record and background checks on all volunteers.

To access the service, you have three options. You may stop a patrolling
team and request an escort; visit the program headquarters on the concourse,
near the second floor cafeteria; or you may pre-arrange escorts by calling
527-5575.

 

 

Celebrating
Margaret Meagher’s
life

Margaret Meagher touched and changed many lives
at Douglas College. In February 1995, one year after
Margaret’s death, some of her friends would like to
dedicate a park bench in her honour on the New
Westminster Quay walkway.

A plaque, “Celebrating Margaret Meagher’s Life”
will provide a special recognition of how deeply she is
missed by her many friends at Douglas College.

All Douglas College members are invited to be a
part of this special commemoration. The bench will
cost $600; all donations are tax deductible and any
funds received above the required amount will be
added to the permanent Margaret Meagher memorial
endowment fund which provides student aid for
chairside dental assisting program students.

This note is to inform you of this special dedication
and to encourage you to contribute to this memorial.
Please send your donations to the Douglas College
Foundation Office. In January you will receive an
invitation to the commemoration ceremony.

For more information call (604) 527-5360, or write
to:

Douglas College Foundation, P.O. Box 2503, New
Westminster, BC, V3L 5B2 (Fax # 604-527-5516).

 

Margaret Meagher