By Michael Deruyter
Ryerson has denied its two student unions their request for the email addresses of all full-time students — information that the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) feel they are privy to.
“Students pay dues, it’s their right to be notified,” said Liana Salvador, vice-president education. “We need to communicate with our members, regardless of university support.”
The RSU wants emails to notify students, who pay membership fees to the union, about its works and services without having to go through Ryerson first to send out information.
But Ryerson’s vice provost students, Heather Lane Vetere, says the school does not have the right to hand over students’ contact information without first gaining permission from students.
“We would like to first send out an email to all students notifying them that the groups are gaining their contact information,” said Vetere. “That email would include an opt-out option if students didn’t want to continue to receive emails from the groups.”
However, the opt-out option cannot be performed until the email system is updated later in the semester.
While the school has relayed this information to the Continuing Education Students’ Association of Ryerson (CESAR), RSU President Jermaine Bagnall and Salvador were unaware of the plans.
Earlier this semester, the RSU wasn’t allowed to include information about the Anti-Racism Task Force in an edition of Campus News. Other information such as post-secondary educational barriers to Aboriginal students were also blocked by the Office of University Advancement, which managed Campus News, now Ryerson Today.
“The school suddenly said they wouldn’t include information about non-Ryerson events,” Salvador said. “That doesn’t make sense because the school has allowed us to send out information about non-school events before.”
Vetere said the issue is still under investigation.
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