As students are using landlines significantly less, the University of Wisconsin Office of the Registrar is now collecting students' cell phone numbers in order to reach them during an emergency situation.

"It has been just recently, in the last year and the half, that we even allowed students to give us a cell phone number for contact information," said Marilyn McIntyre, Manager of Information Services in the UW Office of the Registrar. "It was a campus safety issue — if we needed to contact a student regarding an emergency calling, their dorm room wasn't the way to do it."

Paul Evans, Director of University Housing, said landlines will no longer be available in dorm rooms following research that most students use cell phones instead.

"It's become obvious students are not using their dorm room phones because when we ask them how they want to be contacted, they give us their cell phone number," Evans said, even though landlines will remain in resident hall dens.

Addressing concerns regarding student privacy — including personal cell phone numbers — McIntyre said students should be aware of what information the university is able to make public.

"At the moment, [UW] doesn't release cell phone numbers,” McIntyre said. “They're just being collected to be used in an emergency.”

However, McIntyre said if a student's cell phone number is marked as “preferred” in his or her My UW Student Center, it is public information.

Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, enacted in 1974, each institution must define what it considers public or private information, McIntyre said.

Most institutions, McIntyre said, including UW, consider a student's name, major, home and school addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail address open to be public. 

According to the Wisconsin Open Records Law, the university must provide public student information if it is requested by an outside source, McIntyre said. 

"We don't sell student information," McIntyre said. "However, we are obligated to provide student information to any third party outside the university if they request it."

Despite the policy, McIntyre said the number of third parties that request student information is low.

"It depends on the time of the year, but I would be inclined to say there are about 200 who call,” McIntyre said. “Generally, they are calling for a list of student's e-mail addresses. We do have some steady people that ask every year."

UW junior Geneva Maule said she did not know what type of information UW considered “public.”

"I wouldn't want people getting my information when it hasn't been confirmed with me first," Maule said.

The only way a student can stop this information from being public knowledge is to fill out a UW-FERPA Request to Withhold Student Information form, also known as a FERPA hold, McIntyre said. The form is available on the registrar's website and students can pick and choose what information they want to be made public.

"Students have a right under FERPA to say 'I don't want you to release my address or phone number,' and the student can indicate this on the FERPA hold," McIntyre said. "Madison is unique in letting students choose which pieces of information they want withheld. Other schools say everything or nothing."

Although a student's privacy would be ensured, McIntyre said there are downsides to obtaining a FERPA hold.

"If a student indicated on their FERPA hold they didn't want any information made public, we would not even be allowed to put their name on commencement programs," McIntyre said.

McIntyre recommend students "be very careful" when filling out a FERPA hold and to educate themselves by reading about FERPA on the registrar's website or by getting one-on-one consultation, which is available in the registrar's office.

McIntyre said that the registrar's office is very concerned with student privacy.

"We do a lot of things in our office to make sure it's ensured and we have to balance all of this with the fact that Wisconsin is an open records state," McIntyre said.

McIntyre said fewer than 2 percent of students have a FERPA hold and it takes about two weeks for the hold to take effect.