An Ohio University bursar’s office employee clicked “send” on an email at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday before realizing a mistake had been made, but it was too late to press cancel.
The Post obtained an email sent by the Office of the Bursar informing about 420 students that they had an outstanding balance on their accounts. The email, which stated that failure to send payment would result in the cancellation of Spring Quarter classes, displayed the names and email addresses of all recipients rather than hiding them.
“The employee inadvertently put the email addresses for some of the student recipients in the ‘CC’ column rather than the ‘BCC’ column,” said Sherry Downs, OU bursar. “We realized the mistake had happened within a half an hour of the email being sent.”
Some students said they felt as though their privacy had been invaded, including Cody Fitch, a senior studying health services administration and business administration whose name was included in the email.
“I think that their mistake is an intrusion on everyone’s privacy,” Fitch said.
John Delamater, a sophomore studying outdoor recreation who also received the email, said he thinks the university needs to be more careful.
“They should double check the emails before they send them out if they have important information in them,” Delamater said.
Downs said the bursar’s office hasn’t made a mistake like that before with student communication.
“It was a human error, and we apologize for it,” Downs said. “We have reminded all of our employees about the importance of carefully reviewing their work and our departmental departmental processes.”
Delamater said he received an apology email from the bursar within a few hours of receiving the original email.
“They were very prompt about it and handled it the best way that they could have,” he said.
The bursar’s office does not have any formal policies in place to prevent such mistakes from happening, Downs said.
“There are no formal policies, but I have cautioned my staff with what to do going forward,” Downs said. “If we are dealing with mass communication, staff members are to review the emails that they send to students with another staff member to make sure everything is set up properly.”
bc822010@ohiou.edu
