Legislation that would regulate the BSU@Work Web site was killed Wednesday at the Student Government Association Senate meeting.
The BSU@Work Web site, designed for employees of Ball State, offers personal information about students, including their Social Security numbers, grades and employment information.
Eight members of the Student Safety Committee voted unanimously to kill the legislation, which they said was tabled because of certain wording and "lack of clarity."
Senator Nick Loving said wording in the legislation created implications that, if passed, would accuse the university of violating the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. The implications, he said, concerned the availability of students' grades on the BSU@Work Web site.
Loving said the university is not violating the act by putting students' grades on the BSU@Work Web site.
The committee told Senator Chris Borkowski, who authored the legislation, to reword his legislation and amend parts of it after they tabled it last week, Loving said.
"He brought us essentially the same legislation back," he said.
Borkowski did amend it, Loving said, but not in the areas the committee advised him.
Borkowski missed Wednesday's meeting because of his participation in a press conference with the Indiana Commission for Higher Education.
The legislation also briefly addressed the availability of students' Social Security numbers on the BSU@Work Web site, which Loving said should have been the focus of the legislation.
"We're sending the message that the Social Security number issue is important, not the BSU@Work Web site issue," Loving said. "If you take care of the Social Security number issue, you take care of the BSU@Work Web site issue."
Other issues discussed at Wednesday's meeting included an idea to give students who attend home football games a $5 coupon, which they could use to take that amount off a parking ticket. Senator Katie Wiese said the legislation was targeted at increasing attendance at home football games.
The Services Committee has contacted Acting Director of Public Safety Gene Burton about the idea, Wiese said.
"He was enthusiastic about it," she said.
Wiese said Burton had to talk to Dean Randy Hyman, who supervises the Department of Public Safety, about the idea before the committee could pursue the idea any further.
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