More than 100 students who failed their classes at the University of Kansas last semester found out who shared their misfortune. The school's Office of Student Financial Aid sent an e-mail to 119 students Monday notifying them that they were in jeopardy of having their aid revoked.
But the names of the students were included on the e-mail address list -- meaning everyone who got the e-mail could see the names of all the other recipients.
"It was a completely inadvertent, unintentional mistake," university spokesman Todd Cohen said Thursday. "It was our error, our mistake and we deeply regret it."
Nancy George, a student on the list, said the mistake was tantamount to releasing the grades of students without their permission, which the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act prohibits.
"Nobody should have known that I failed a class or that I even had a student loan," said George, who says she failed because her daughter had developed pneumonia.
Cohen said the university is contacting students to apologize. She also said the incident had been reported to the Department of Education so it could determine if there was a violation of the federal law.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.
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