After a long debate, the Student Senate voted to pass a bill urging Ball State to remove students' Social Security numbers from all documents. The Senate passed the legislation with 22 yes votes, three no votes and 13 abstentions.
The debate was not centered on whether to remove the numbers, but whether or not the legislation in question was thorough enough to pass on to University Senate.
Last week, the bill was introduced to the Senate for the first time with a "do not pass" recommendation from the Safety Committee. This week, Sen. Justin Hinga spoke out against the bill. Ironically, he was the one who authored it.
Hinga said he was against the passing of the bill because there was no plan of implementation outlined. Last week, Hinga said he didn't include an implementation plan because he was pressured to finish the legislation by members of the executive board. Megan Pickens, Student Government Association vice president, denied those claims.
Many senators, however, said the bill did not need an implementation plan because the university already has one. Pickens informed the senators of this during discussion of the bill.
The university established a task force in the fall that took suggestions on how to eliminate Social Security number uses, Pickens said. The committee has since outlined a plan to eliminate the use of the identification numbers by the fall of 2004.
"My job is to make sure they have as much information as possible," Pickens said.
The plans for the Social Security number removal have not been released to the public yet. SGA adviser Kay Bales said there are still minor details that need to be worked out first.
After the Senate had heard both sides, discussion of the bill took place. Sen. Jared Simmons was among those supporting the bill as written, without a plan of implementation. He said the bottom line is simply to remove Social Security numbers as identification.
"Who cares what number they use," Simmons asked rhetorically. "Who cares how they do it?"
Parliamentarian Ben Tietz agreed. He said the main goal of this legislation is to show student support of the change.
"I think this adequately does that," Tietz said, "and if University Senate sees this (legislation), they'll get the point."
Sen. Anita Brown was on the opposing side. She said without an implementation recommendation, the university might make a switch that is still dangerous for the students.
"It's a matter of saying exactly what we want," Brown said. "What we are getting here is the right to complain afterwards."
Hinga echoed Brown's sentiments. He said if the university changes the identification number for the worse, they could say, "You asked for it."
After the bill passed, Hinga said he was not disappointed.
"What was there was good," he said. "I think it makes a strong statement, but not a strong enough statement.
"I agree with the general purpose or I wouldn't have written it."
There has been at least one case of identity theft on campus this year. In the fall, a female student had her identity stolen and more than $5,000 of charges rang up on her cellular phone.
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