Over the years, faculty, students and staff have slowly slipped away from being identified by a name in the University of Tennessee system to being identified simply by a number. UT did not randomly assign this number, choosing instead to use Social Security numbers. The Faculty Senate passed a resolution at their meeting Monday asking for a change in the system of identification to reduce the possibilities of identity theft.

UT’s identification numbers are how the university keeps tabs on everything and everyone, from Parking Services and employee and student IDs to library borrowing and faculty and staff benefits. Currently, 50 percent of students and a majority of faculty and staff are identified by their Social Security number.

The resolution was sought to respond to an incident this past summer when a database of personal information was compromised by a computer hacker. The database listed the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of over 36,000 people employed by the statewide UT system, The Daily Beacon reported in July 2006.

Faculty Senate President Louis Gross, a professor of ecology and mathematics, said this threat led to the resolution.

“It was in part that incident which led to the resolution passed by the Faculty Senate (yesterday),” Gross said.

The incident sparked debate at UT, Knoxville, and at other UT campuses around the state.

“(The incident) spurred actions by other UT campus Faculty Senates to determine what the policies were on their campuses and request changes,” Gross said.

The resolution was presented by the IT Committee with Senator Marianne Breinig, physics professor, representing.

“We are working on the problem. For now we request everyone at UT to change your ID number to something unique,” Breinig said.

As stated in the resolution, the Faculty Senate is asking “the university administration to halt the use of the Social Security number as an identifier, to the extent feasible and with the highest priority. (And that) the university create a written policy specifying acceptable uses of the Social Security number, specifying proper encryption to be implemented for any legitimate stored uses and specifying that any other use of the Social Security number is unacceptable.”

The Faculty Senate also urged the university to assign new, unique numbers to faculty, staff and students whose ID number is currently their Social Security number. Along with changing it automatically, they want the university to inform all affected persons of their new number.

“There is a need for the change. (The current policy) affects students, faculty and staff,” Gross said.

The motion was called, votes were counted and the resolution passed unanimously. The resolution will serve to reveal to the university administration the need for such a policy.

“The resolution says that discussion is needed to set out policy, and the Faculty Senate is encouraging this to be done,” Gross said.