The SGA is trying to revive an issue first raised in 2003 to make it easier for on-campus students to register with the National Do Not Call Registry.
Student Government Association legislator Jason Lewis introduced a bill the SGA approved Wednesday to help on-campus students register for the Do Not Call Registry by having a window pop up while they’re setting up their campus phone and Internet connection on the university’s Office of Information Technology website.
Lewis said he will work with Linda Clement, vice president for student affairs, to discuss ways to get this done.
On-campus students began complaining about unsolicited calls to their dorm rooms in 2002, a year before the Federal Trade Commission created the registry that made it illegal for telemarketers to call anyone on the list. Residential Facilities tried to register the entire campus in 2003, but FTC guidelines say individuals must register their own numbers.
Lewis understands registering the entire campus would violate FTC guidelines. Instead, he wants to simply make more students aware of this service, he said.
“We want to make it as easy as possible for students to have this information,” he said. “I don’t think a lot of students are aware they can put their number on the Do Not Call Registry.”
David Robbins, of the FTC’s Bureau of Customer Protection, said students can put themselves into the registry like other citizens.
“There’s no reason why your students shouldn’t be able to register their numbers,” Robbins said. “We do not, however, provide a service to institutions to bulk register their numbers.”
The only time the FTC allows bulk registration is through state do-not-call lists, said Mitch Katz, FTC public affairs specialist.
“You can register up to three numbers at a time, but you need to be calling from the phone you’re desiring to register,” Katz said.
The resolution also calls to eventually eliminate the printed student directory and to have an online version that will move from the university’s website to Testudo. Student directories are distributed to all dorms, with extras made available in the undergraduate studies office of the Mitchell building, said Dianne Burch, university editor of the Office of Marketing and Communications.
“The student directory is an item that is very readily available,” Lewis said. “We want to rein in who exactly has access to that.”
On the current online directory, anyone can search for faculty and staff numbers, but student searches require a user ID and password.
Jeffrey Huskamp, vice president and chief information officer of OIT, said it would be a difficult task to create a new online directory on Testudo.
“You would have to go through the data stores to make sure they’re okay with releasing that information,” Huskamp said. “We take a very rigorous view about people we release information to. You have to go through a very formal process.”
WHAT TO DO
To add yourself to the National Do Not Call Registry:
– call 1-888-382-1222
– visit www.donotcall.gov
Contact reporter Theodore J. Sawchuck at newsdesk@dbk.umd.edu.
