St. Joseph's University has apologised for accidentally sending students' grade-point averages report card in a mass e-mail, March 6.
The card was attached to an email sent out by the university's Haub School of Business to inform students about an Italian internship. The mail went out to nearly 500 undergraduate students. The spreadsheet also contained student names and their email addresses.
University Provost Brice Wachterhauser has apologized for the error and said that it was an 'internal human error.'
Federal law prevents universities and colleges from sharing any student's grades without getting a written consent.
University officials said that they realised their mistake immediately, but it was too late.
"We thought it was important to let all Haub School of Business students know what happened because some of the students were talking to one another and the school is much larger than the 500," Carolyn Steigleman, spokesperson at Stint Joseph's University, said.
Steigleman said that the dean's office had sent the e-mail providing information about the prestigious internship opportunity in Italy. However, by mistake, the university shared a file featuring students' names, email addresses and GPAs.
The university later issued an apology letter and requested the students to delete that particular message.
An excerpt from the university's apology letter:
"Safeguarding the privacy of protected student information is a responsibility Saint Joseph's and the Haub School take seriously. We regret this error and offer our apologies to all students affected both directly and indirectly by the email message. To prevent further distribution, recipients are encouraged to delete this message and remove the attachment from electronic devices."