College Administrators

Being a good digital citizen means being a good steward of data. Personal information and data is free flowing —and as a college administrator, you can play an essential role in ensuring your campus community is respecting privacy, safeguarding data and enabling trust.

A great place to start is celebrating Data Privacy Day, held on January 28^th every year.  Many also celebrate the occasion during the month of January and weeks following January 28th.

Even if you have just one hour to devote to this international observance or decide to make a larger time commitment, you’ll be sure to find at least one activity from the list below that can make a big difference!

What You Can Do...
...in less than One Hour:  

• Email the Data Privacy Day and/or the STOP. THINK. CONNECT. awareness posters to all campus administrators, dean of students, housing manager, and other campus leadership to encourage them to display the poster by January 7, 2013 throughout your college/university campus to help promote the day and data privacy. (Download the DPD poster at http://staysafeonline.org/data-privacy-day/promote-dpd/; find the awareness posters at http://staysafeonline.org/stop-think-connect/posters/ )

• Email the college/university president, the dean of students, academic deans, and other school administrators about Data Privacy Day and encourage them to integrate messages about “respecting privacy, safeguarding data and enabling trust” in maintaining data privacy in their written communications, blogs, and presentations to students, faculty members, and other college/university personnel during January. (For more resources, visit http://staysafeonline.org/data-privacy-day/educator-resources/)

…in less than One Day:

• Show your Data Privacy Day leadership by becoming a DPD Champion.  (It’s easy to sign up at http://staysafeonline.org/data-privacy-day/champions/ .)

• Schedule a meeting with your chief privacy officer to discuss ways you can partner on safeguarding data on your campus. Include respecting privacy and policies regarding personal information as an agenda item in an upcoming staff or faculty meeting.

• Host a movie night on campus. Pose a series of questions to the audience related to privacy prior to and after the film. Suggested films include: “The Lives of Heroes,”  “1954,” “The Net,” “Minority report,” “Rear Window.”

…in less than One Week:

• Launch a campus-wide/university-wide awareness campaign, by (1) using your social media vehicles (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, YouTube accounts) to promote Data Privacy Day, (2) posting  information and banners on your university/college Web site, and (3) encouraging your educational community to “like” the Data Privacy Day page at www.facebook.com /DataPrivacyNCSA to ensure that you get the latest DPD announcements and news. (For additional social media resources visit: http://staysafeonline.org/data-privacy-day/get-involved/what-you-can-do .)

• Ask the board of trustees to pass a formal proclamation in support of Data Privacy Day, observed internationally on January 28, 2012.

…in less than One Month:

• Hold a Data Privacy Day event on campus on or around January 28th and invite guest lecturers to discuss data privacy and the latest issues. Distribute tools and tips available from the National Cyber Security Alliance. (For topic ideas and resources, visit http://www.educause.edu/focus-areas-and-initiatives/policy-and-security/educause-policy/community-engagement/data-privacy-month; you can also post your events on our community calendar by completing the following form: http://staysafeonline.org/data-privacy-day/events/submit-dpd-event) 

• Hold a campus poster/video contest in which students create public service announcements and other outreach materials to educate their peers using the STOP. THINK. CONNECT. or “respecting privacy, safeguarding data and enabling trust” themes.

…All Year Round:

• Review your college/university data “acceptable use policies” for consistency with current online technologies and revise as necessary. (For guidelines, visit http://staysafeonline.org/teach-online-safety/for-administrators.)

• Develop and implement a campus-wide policy to notify students, faculty, and staff in the event of an online data breach. (For guidelines, visit www.debix.com/workbook/index.php.)

• Include STOP. THINK. CONNECT. educational materials in student handbooks and orientation materials. (For resources, visit http://stopthinkconnect.org.)