For sale: Your information
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The University of North Florida can release student directory information including names, addresses and phone numbers to credit card companies, the military and other third-party vendors. Students can prevent their information from being released by filling out a non-disclosure form at One Stop Student Services. |
Thousands of University of North Florida students are giving their personal information away and may not even know it.
Students' names, phone numbers, addresses, classifications, majors, degrees, dates of attendance and their full or part-time statuses are all available information that can be given out by the university to the public.
"I do think there are probably some students out there that aren't aware," said registrar Vicky Buonomo.
The above information is known as directory information and can be given to third-party vendors such as credit card companies, businesses, the military and others, Buonomo said.
The registrar's office typically receives six or seven directory information requests each semester, Buonomo said. No credit card companies have requested information from UNF since the beginning of 2006. Herff Jones, two student insurance companies and various military branches have made requests since then, she said.
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Senators authorize $3 million budget
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Senate President A.J. Souto led the senate meeting Feb. 19 where the 2007-2008 Activity and Service Fee budget was revisited and then approved. |
The University of North Florida Student Government Senate approved the $3 million Activity and Service Fee Budget Feb. 19 for the 2007-2008 year.
The Budget and Allocations Committee presented a balanced budget after deliberations earlier this month. During a senate meeting that lasted nearly six hours, the senate revisited nine accounts in the budget and rebalanced the budget.
"This budget is not as controversial as last year," said Senate President and junior Political Science major A.J. Souto. "This year people took it in stride and realized we had to make cuts - it had to be done."
The A&S Fee budget is comprised of 34 individual accounts that have their own budgets.
The budget requests from the 34 accounts were approximately $300,000 more than the budget could accommodate, Souto said.
"We started out with a $312,000 deficit," he said.
"They [the senators] were really trying to do the best they could to continue the services without cutting anyone," said SG Comptroller Betty Garris.
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Duval among STD leaders
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Duval County had the fifth highest number of chlaymdia cases in Florida for 2006. Gonorrhea is another prevalent STD in Duval County. |
One in four Americans has an STD, according the American Social Health Association.
Compared to the other 66 counties in Florida, Duval County had the fifth-highest rating of chlamydia in 2006. The age group of 20-24 accounted for the highest ratings of chlamydia in Duval County while the 15-19 age group came in second, according to the Florida Department of Health Division of Disease Control.
Rodney Brown, a prevention/training consultant of the Duval County Health Department said the years within these age groups are considered the most sexually active years. Many young people have liberal attitudes towards sex, thinking they are invincible and incapable of contracting a deadly disease, he said.
Twenty-year-old Jessica Affendakes, a junior health administration major, agreed with Brown.
"I could probably name at least five people at UNF who have had an STD," she said.
Brown also said drug and alcohol use is at an all-time high during these years and is a definite contributing factor to the high numbers.
Among the highest of these numbers are rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea. In 2006, Duval County had 4,831 reported cases of chlamydia and 2,417 cases of gonorrhea. These diseases are among the most serious because they can cause sterility, making it impossible to reproduce, according to the ASHA.
According to the FDH the number of cases of gonorrhea and chlamydia increased from 2005 to 2006 by more than 3 percent. The numbers of other common STDs dropped slightly or stayed the same.
The 20-24 age group accounted for approximately 1,800 of the chlamydia cases last year.
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