Chico State students are conflicted about university's vaccination exemption data breach
CHICO, Calif. — Despite Chico's high COVID vaccination rates compared to the rest of Butte County, some students at Chico State University have asked to not get a vaccine to comply with the CSU system's vaccination requirement. For around 130 of these students, that request was not as confidential as they might like.
Their names, phone numbers and reasons for exemption were posted on an online message board earlier this week as part of an apparent data breach, according to a Sacramento Bee report. The acting Chief Information Officer for the university, Andy Miller, told KRCR only around 10 names were identified with the rest being anonymous.
Even so, students returning for their first week of the fall semester are conflicted about the news, as the online message board provided "tips" on how to file and successfully secure a religious exemption to the mandate.
"I think it sucks but honestly in this day and age it's kind of an eventuality that thing can happen online," says senior Osvaldo Garcia while leaving campus for the day, hearing the news for the first time.
"It may be trivial information but when it goes to a larger extent it could be scary," says graduate student Priyanka Rao, sitting on campus with her friend. "It's up to one's choice if they want to get the vaccine or not, so it's not for the public to be known."
"How are you going to try and come on campus without a COVID vaccine knowing everything that's coming around?" says freshman Sarah Lopez studying on the lawn of Kendall Hall. "But at the same time, some of the reasons are valid. I feel like some of them should be (publicized) if they choose to have their opinion out there."
"But the fact that it was put out there without their consent?" asks KRCR.
"That one is kind of hard. That is a hard question."
KRCR reached out to Chico State for an update on their investigation into who posted the information. Miller told KRCR on Tuesday that a lead was being pursued that they were "confident" of. The university responded that it will "share information about its findings at the appropriate time" but did not provide a timeline beyond that.
