Sacramento State students who received telephone calls about enlisting from the U.S. Army question student-privacy laws and how the military decides who to target.

Dennis Geyer, the university’s registrar, explained that Sac State is required by a federal law called the Solomon Amendment to comply with requests from the military for student information. Enacted by Congress in 1996 to assist the military in meeting recruiting goals, the law allows the Secretary of State to deny federal funding to institutions of higher learning if they prohibit military recruiting or refuse to provide certain information about students to the military.

“We try to help the recruiters narrow their scope of what they’re looking for as far as communication purposes,” Geyer said.

He said the university does not ask why the military tries to taper its search; the university merely provides the information for valid requests. That information includes the name, age, level of education, degrees earned, area of major, address, telephone numbers and the most recent enrollment in an educational institution.

“When they try to get more specific than that we decline it?we say, ‘This is what you’re limited to,'” Geyer said.

Geyer said the university often receives requests from vendors which are reviewed; requests considered inappropriate or permissive are ignored. “We typically don’t respond at all to credit card companies?we’ve been very protective of student information.”

Master Sergeant Michael Heple, an enrollment adviser at the campus Reserve Officers Training Corps office, said the ROTC on campus does not recruit students and is also protective of student information. Heple said that while the various branches of the armed forces are free to recruit on campus at any time without approval, the campus ROTC does ask recruiters to alert them when the military comes to visit.

“The army recruiters check in with us when they come on campus, but they don’t always do that?occasionally we’ll get a complaint from the university that says that some recruiter?did something that was inappropriate,” Heple said.

One incident he recounted was when a Marine Corps member grabbed a student by the arm and the student complained to the school. The complaint was then passed along to the ROTC. Assuming military recruitment officers and the ROTC are the same people is a common mistake students make. Heple said this is not uncommon for civilians unfamiliar with the different military service branches; oftentimes, they don’t realize the ROTC is not involved with the recruitment on campus.

Nick Walls, history graduate student, has a problem with the idea of his information being available for government scrutiny.

“I think it’s wrong,” he said. “I don’t think it’s proper for the school to give out that information?it’s just inappropriate.”

Walls doesn’t see why the military should be an exception and would like to see the school be able to limit the information given out.

“The military is free to set up a booth on campus like anyone else and?wrangle folks in. They can put up fliers, they may send out bulletins, they can use recruiters; however, to use the school in order to get information for students?it’s not the school’s place to give that out,” Walls said.

Stefeni Brown, freshman kinesiology major, is also uncomfortable with the idea of the military calling her, but considers the approach a valid means of recruitment.

“If I was called by them, I’d be like, ‘Uh?no’, but it is effective to get people?if that’s the only way you can reach people then hey, go ahead, but try to find some other outreaching as well,” Brown said.

Other students have no problem with their information being given over to military recruiters for the purpose of finding potential enlistees.

“It’s the same as when you register to vote – you’re on the list of voter registrars as well,” said junior business major Chris Smith.

Smith pointed out that more detailed information about someone is readily available to companies seeking marketing information than to the military.

“There’s way more information that’s accessed from third-party marketers than what I’m assuming is accessed by the military. I mean, if you just swipe your credit card at the store, like they’re able to sell them off to so many other contributors. I think that’s worse than what the military is doing,” Smith said.

Geyer defended the university’s compliance with the military recruiters requests.

“When it’s federal law, we do what we have to do,” Geyer said.

Geyer did add the university does not release any sort of information such as disciplinary records, Social Security numbers, ethnicity, gender or veteran status.

“If they request any categories of students by that we deny it,” Geyer said.

Walls wishes the university did not have to fulfill the requests for information; he considers fielding the cold calls annoying.

“They ask you questions and tailor their response to try and make the military seem more interesting,” he said.

Heple said the ROTC is happy to assist if a student has an issue with visiting recruiters: “We work for the university, not the army.”