A text over the weekend from Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign to students at Arizona’s three public universities had some Republican lawmakers crying foul. However, the schools say there was nothing nefarious about it.
On social media, Republican state Sen. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek) claimed the text campaign — urging students to register to vote in Arizona and support Harris for president — reeked of “election interference.”
“Thanks to record turnout among college students in 2020, I am Vice President of the United State today. Tim Walz and I are the underdogs in this election, but student voters could make the difference. We need your support to win,” the message said.
“It is ILLEGAL for political campaigns to access personally identifiable information (PII) of public university students within AZ. This is a MAJOR security breach!” Hoffman posted on X.
But a spokesperson for Arizona State University explained the students’ contact information is a matter of public record under federal law, referencing a federal privacy law known as FERPA. The information is commonly requested and paid for by a variety of groups, including campaigns.
“Under FERPA, it is considered 'directory information,' along with other basic information like the student’s major, dates of attendance, and enrollment status. It is common for entities that want to advertise to ASU students to request this publicly available contact information — everything from apartment complexes, to credit cards, to political candidates,” the spokesperson said in an email.
The other two universities confirmed that.
Mitch Zak, spokesman for the University of Arizona, said any claim of illegality in releasing the data has no basis.
Under FERPA, students are able to opt out of having their information disclosed.
At University of Arizona, officials said 431 of the approximately 71,000 students in the database have asked that their cellphone numbers not be distributed. ASU says there are 1,161 students with a "directory hold" out of nearly 153,000 currently enrolled. And for Northern Arizona University, there are 269 opt-outs out of 27,250 students in the database.
Nonetheless, Hoffman said the release of student data still raises ethical and legal concerns, and he claims he’s launching a state Senate investigation of the texts.
A spokesperson for the Arizona Senate did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the investigation.
It’s not clear exactly who purchased the list of student information.
Representatives at the universities said they have no record of a request for the data specifically from the Harris campaign. That raises the question of whether it was obtained from some third party.
Hoffman says that "raises deeply troubling questions about the lack of data security."
A spokesman for the Harris campaign in Arizona declined to comment.
But the universities say it is irrelevant who actually purchased the list: As long as it is a public record, it is open to anyone. The only difference, they said, is the cost.
UA charges $165 per 1,000 names provided. But if the request is for a commercial purpose — someone selling something — there is an upfront $4,000 cost plus the per-name figure.
ASU and NAU have a flat $400 fee for noncommercial use; commercial requests have a $4,000 fee plus the per-student rate.
And if the request comes from a candidate or political party, it is considered not for commercial use. It would only be considered commercial use if it is sold to an outside political consultant or someone else who then made a profit by selling the access to the names.
