More incidents of the administration mishandling students’ personal information have been reported just three weeks after a School of Management undergraduate adviser mistakenly e-mailed the Social Security numbers of 338 SOM students to more than 200 accounting students.

Binghamton University students Mike Saltzman and Daniel Aronoff both came forward with concerns about the security of students’ Social Security numbers after the SOM incident, though the students’ complaints occurred under very different circumstances.

Aronoff, a junior majoring in math and management information systems, said that he was happy to have made the SOM’s dean’s list for fall 2007 — until he came home for spring break and found his Social Security number visible from the envelope of his dean’s list letter.

“My Social Security number was printed in parentheses right next to my name, with the address below,” Aronoff said.

Aronoff explained that he hadn’t reported the incident to the school after the letter was mailed home in February because he didn’t see it until he went home for spring break.

However, SOM Dean Upinder Dhillon said that, to his knowledge, no dean’s list letters were sent in windowed envelopes.

“The process of having Social Security numbers next to the name is being eliminated,” he added.

Another incident currently under investigation by the administration was first reported by Saltzman.

Saltzman, a junior and the general manager of WHRW, said he had found a manilla envelope full of international students’ private information on Jan. 23 while cleaning the WHRW office in the basement of the New University Union.

“I opened the folder without looking,” Saltzman said, noting that it wasn’t unusual for there to be unopened mail around the office. “Within it were photocopies of Turkish students’ passports, Social Security cards and other licenses.”

Saltzman called University police to file a report shortly after.

According to Saltzman, neither he nor the officers were able to recognize the address on the outside of the envelope. Saltzman said he decided to come forward to Pipe Dream after the SOM incident last month.

Saltzman said he believed that the two incidents combined showed a possible systematic problem with the way that sensitive information is handled at BU.

Investigator Dennis P. Bush of University police said the officers took the envelope from WHRW and gave it to the University registrar.

“Since it’s not a criminal matter, we’re not investigating it,” Bush said. “It’s something that’s being investigated by the administration.”

University spokeswoman Gail Glover said the students whose information appeared in the envelope were not contacted by the registrar because it was felt that the information had not been compromised.

According to Glover the investigation is still ongoing.

Reports of the envelope incidents come after Brian Perry, an SOM undergraduate adviser, accidentally sent an e-mail containing the Social Security numbers and grade point averages of SOM students to an accounting Listserv instead of another SOM faculty member shortly before spring break.

Glover said that the incident is currently being investigated.

Dhillon said it was necessary that the numbers be included in the e-mail.

“The purpose of the e-mail was to seek input from accounting faculty for student awards,” Dhillon said. “The Social Security numbers were used for identification purposes.”

Vice President for Student Affairs Brian Rose said that he believed training faculty and staff on how to handle sensitive information would be key in preventing another mistake from happening. Rose, who began working at BU this semester, was responsible for initiating the removal of students’ Social Security numbers from their student identification cards at Rutgers University.

Rose also added his support for the new B-Number system. According to the University’s Web site, the B-Number will be a new primary identification number for students and is designed to be used instead of their Social Security numbers for most correspondence with the University.

Students will be able to start using their B-Numbers in the fall.