Inside Higher Ed reports that the results of a U.S. General Accounting Office survey about college and university policies on file sharing may not be kept confidential. Usually, such surveys include a statement that the information will be kept confidential. But not in this case.
According to the report, “Congressional aides have insisted that the agency in this instance report not just on the file sharing landscape in the aggregate, but on how individual colleges responded to the survey.”
Higher ed leaders, such as Terry W. Hartle of the American Council on Education and Mark A. Luker, vice president of Educause, are concerned. Hartle contacted GAO officials and “was told that that aides to the Judiciary subcommittee had insisted that the GAO collect and report back to the panel on the responses of individual institutions.”
As for Educause, Luker said that organization is alerting its members to the fact that their responses to the GAO survey will not be kept confidential, since the survey materials themselves don’t make that clear.
Andy writes! 