ACCESS BY TEACHING FACULTY TO STUDENT PHOTOGRAPHS (Q&A):

What is Proposed?

The UB Faculty Senate Teaching and Learning Committee has proposed that student photographs taken for the UB Card would be available to your instructors in courses for which you are registered. Comment to the Chair of the Faculty Senate on this access is welcome (zbfacsen@buffalo.edu) before September 27, 2004.

How would the photographs be made available?

Currently course lists for which you register are given to instructors through MY UB. The student numbers would be linked to the photographs, allowing the list and color photographs to be printed.

How would privacy be protected?

Only faculty and staff teaching in the course would have access to your photograph and it would be used only for educational purposes. There would be a prohibition against posting of the photographs publicly or release of the photographs to other parties.

What advantage would this provide for students and for instructors?

Learning names is often a difficult task for instructors and having photographs would make the task easier. Students should be encouraged to interact with faculty both in class and also during office hours. Access to pictures would allow instructors to associate names with the photographs. When writing letters of recommendation for example, it is easier to recall students when viewing a photograph.

Do other universities have similar access by faculty to student photographs?

Of prestigious AAU institutions of which UB is a member, 14 institutions already have access by faculty to student photographs. Among these institutions are Yale, Cornell, University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Brandeis, Columbia, and University of Chicago.

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