Professor Joel Reidenberg is featured in a recent article from the University of Montana’s student-run independent newspaper, the Montana Kaimin. He provides his expert opinion on how student privacy, especially female student privacy, will be affected by a new University policy that requires fraternities to have their guests swipe an electronic tracking card prior to entering any functions where alcohol is present.
The majority of students on guest lists are most likely sorority women, Zinke said. When a person swipes a Griz Card at one of the five fraternities, the scanner’s name, University ID number, the date and time of scanning are transferred to the FSI office, where the data are kept for a minimum of seven years, according to Zinke.
The Kaimin first reported on the Griz Card the policy when it went into effect Spring 2019. Since then, it has generated questions about privacy and gender discrimination. And it comes just after the University asked sororities to report sexual assaults, and after one fraternity member was accused of rape by a sorority member who spoke with the Missoulian in January. The scanner policy states any UM Greek Life function with alcohol is required to have a Griz Card scanner, to corroborate an existing paper guest list.
…Joel Reidenberg, a professor at Fordham University School of Law in New York and the founding academic director of the Center on Law and Information Policy, said the Griz swipe policy seems invasive and discriminatory.
“The biggest issue for me is that [the University]wants to know who people are associating with socially,” Reidenberg said. “This is about the University defending itself, not defending the individual student.”
He said the card-swipe policy seemed too redundant and useless to be offering any sort of extra protection. “It doesn’t seem to me like they have a sufficiently legitimate interest to require these scanners at these events,” he said.
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Regardless, Reidenberg, of Fordham Law, said there’s an obvious disproportionate impact based on gender, no matter how you frame it.Because scanners are only required at functions hosted by fraternity men, and sorority women are the ones most often swiping, Reidenberg said the policy clearly has a disparate effect on women.