Ryerson security warns students not to sign mysterious clipboards

By Kiernan Green

Ryerson security is warning students to report sightings of unidentified clipboards on campus that advertise a mysterious job.

Sign-up sheets attached to clipboards have been circulating Ryerson lecture halls asking students to write down their first name, last name, cellphone number, faculty and the city they’ll be living in next summer if interested in a “management opportunity” for summer 2019. There is no company name or contact listed on them.

Students told The Eye they’ve seen the clipboards in classes in the Ted Rogers School of Management (TRSM) building and the Cineplex Cinemas Yonge-Dundas theatres.

“We are a Canadian company with 35 years of experience, seeking high-achieving university students to fill summer management positions for 2019,” the sign-up sheets read. The slogan “Work Hard, Play Hard” is also written on the page.

Several media outlets have linked the clipboards to human trafficking. However, there is no concrete evidence to prove this since the people responsible for the clipboards are unknown.

Tracy Ha, a second-year business management student, said she wrote down her contact information on one of the sign-up sheets passed around in her class last year.

Ha said she then started receiving incoming calls from at “random hours.”

“I picked up once and they talked about a job opportunity. When I asked what it was and what company they were from, the person asked to meet up,” she said. “I just hung up.”

Ryerson security sent out a mass email last week advising students not to disclose personal information to groups or individuals they don’t know and to report the clipboards if seen on campus. In the email, Ryerson also wrote that Toronto Police Services is investigating the clipboards.

However, Const. Jenifferjit Sidhu told The Eye police are not investigating the matter.

“We have no evidence to believe that these clipboards in classrooms are linked to criminal behaviour,” Sidhu said in a statement. “Ryerson security did a report, we have it on file but at this time it is not criminal.”

Brian Lesser, chief information officer at the university, said his advice to students is to never provide any personal information to anyone unless you can verify the source’s identity independently.

Madi Fuller, a first-year psychology student, said she saw the clipboard passed around her business law class in TRSM on the first day of class this year. She said she didn’t sign it.

“The whole first page was full by the time it made its way around,” she said, adding that her professor asked the students why they were willing to give out their information when the clipboard “didn’t even look legitimate.”

Security told The Eye they received several emails from Ryerson community members who read a Narcity article about the clipboards appearing on campuses. In the article, the writer noted there has been a rise in human trafficking schemes on campuses across the country.

Updates to come