Monday, October 1, 2012

University at Albany Police Department mathematics: 3=4=6

I'm not sure I care to link the University at Albany's Sex Offender Registry. Many students, students' parents, faculty, staff, etc. are, I suspect, unaware there even is such a registry.

Nevertheless, it's important to note a problem concerning the registry: not regarding the offenders, but the registry itself. It states the following:

"There are currently three (4) registered sex offenders enrolled or working at the University. The following Information has been released:"

Basic observation here: "three (4)" would seem to indicate that not much attention is paid to the registry, and not much care put into it. It ought to be "three (3)" or "four (4)".

Really it ought to be "six (6)", because that's the actual number of sex offenders who are listed there.

The copyright, in light gray tiny text at the bottom left of the Sex Offender Registry page states "© 2009 University at Albany." Has the registry not been updated in three years? Templates from 2009 appear in lines 7, 8, 9, 10, 24, 358, 359, 360 of the page's source code. Line 374 has, surrounded by html code for line breaks, "© 2009 University at Albany". While the templates from 2009 may not have been updated in three years and thus be fine, line 374 not being updated - that seems bad.

Possibly it really hasn't been updated in three years, as some of the people listed there aren't in the UA Mail directory. If they're no longer at the university, their privacy rights are possibly being violated. Likewise, the university (and wider) community is being misinformed about their presence.

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