E-mails from a local health clinic sent to nearly 20,000 students at the beginning of the month might lead the University to change its online directory system, an ASU technology official said.
The message was an advertisement sent from Desert Women’s Care, a clinic that specializes in female reproduction. The advertisement announced the opening of a new clinic location near the Tempe campus where ASU students could receive birth control.
The e-mails, however, broke University policy that prohibits private businesses from using ASU computer resources for advertising.
Dr. Greg Marchand, a head physician at the clinic, said his wife, who isn’t on the clinic’s payroll, was in charge of compiling the e-mail list.
“She thought it was a really good way to get the word out to ASU students,” Marchand said.
Marchand’s wife declined to speak with The State Press about how she compiled the e-mail list, and her name could not be confirmed at the time of publication.
Between 15,000 and 20,000 students received the e-mails, Marchand said. In total, Marchand’s wife gathered 200,000 e-mail addresses in the Tempe area from online phone books and e-mail systems like Yahoo, he said.
Marchand said his wife formed the University e-mail list using ASU’s 2009-2010 printed directory, a book that is available at the ASU Bookstore on the Tempe campus.
The first page of the directory states that using the book for soliciting purposes is prohibited.
Because the methods Marchand’s wife reportedly used could not be confirmed, ASU officials are still considering ways of protecting the University’s online directory, University Technology Officer Adrian Sannier said.
Sannier said a spammer compiling an e-mail list from ASU’s directory could utilize a method called “screen scraping,” which might use a system to pull large numbers of e-mails from the online directory.
“I can’t think of a time where the directory has ever been scraped,” he said.
Sannier said counter measures will be discussed so that the directory does not get scraped in the future, adding that ASU must find a balance between suppressing spam and allowing easy access to the directory system.
When mass e-mails are sent to ASU inboxes from a non-University source, Sannier said the University’s e-mail system automatically places the e-mail in a person’s spam folder.
The e-mail followed the state’s anti-spam law, which requires solicitors to provide an easy way for the e-mail recipients to be removed from the mailing list.
The end of the e-mail read, “If you would like to be removed, simply reply to this email with ‘unsubscribe’ in the subject of the email.’”
Students also have the option of removing their information from ASU’s online and printed directory by filing a written form with the University Registrar.
The University does allow businesses and outside organizations to send students e-mails through ASU’s Career Services department as long as the e-mail concerns student employment.
Elaine Stover, associate director of ASU’s Career Services, said businesses can obtain student e-mails if students submit their resumes to an online resume book, because the resumes submitted will have contact information, she said.
However, any business that uses the resume book for soliciting purposes will be removed from the online system, Stover said.
ASU technology officials are currently analyzing the e-mail sent from the women’s health clinic, Sannier said.
Reach the reporter at kjdaly@asu.edu
