There are a lot of discussions at York University regarding the student status of individuals here at York University. The issue is complex and affects multiple aspects of life at the University. Here, I'm going to tackle one very specific issue: computer user profiles (or IDs).
It is very common here at YorkU for an individual to have two computer user profiles. For instance, student Jane Doe could have janedoe1998, as well as jdoe456. Why is that? Well, often it's because Jane Doe is a senior undergraduate student who also works, part time, as a teaching assistant.
Jane's student records fall under janedoe1998 while her "worker" account is jdoe456. When Professor X goes to add Jane to a Microsoft Teams page for the teaching assistants then it's unclear as to which account to use for two reasons:
- Jane typically only checks her student profile, and
- Professor X can't tell, in Teams or eClass, which account is coded as student and which is coded as worker
The problem is exacerbated when Jane has a common name and there are multiple students with similar profile names (something that the James Smiths of the world encounter all the time)... will Professor X add a random, untrusted student to the valuable Teams or eClass page with sensitive course information?
Possible Fix? Tags.
Our IT department should enable a process to resolve the profile uncertainty. At minimum, we need a better way to be able to distinguish between students and workers when, for instance, we create group Teams pages or add Tasks to the eClass course pages. Perhaps each profile should have a visible "student" or "worker" tag on it in systems like Teams or eClass.
I'm sure that there are other possible fixes. I'm no expert in IT or HR systems. I do, however, know that the status quo is not acceptable.
Conclusion
We need better ways to identify individuals here at YorkU. It's one of the largest post-secondary institutions in the country. Many of our community members play multiple roles at York and we need to acknowledge and support that in a secure way that encourages data safety.
Stay tuned for more posts on the issue of students and workers here at YorkU....
James Andrew Smith is a Professional Engineer and Associate Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department of York University’s Lassonde School, with degrees in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Alberta and McGill University. Previously a program director in biomedical engineering, his research background spans robotics, locomotion, human birth, music and engineering education. While on sabbatical in 2018-19 with his wife and kids he lived in Strasbourg, France and he taught at the INSA Strasbourg and Hochschule Karlsruhe and wrote about his personal and professional perspectives. James is a proponent of using social media to advocate for justice, equity, diversity and inclusion as well as evidence-based applications of research in the public sphere. You can find him on Twitter. You can find him on BlueSky. Originally from Québec City, he now lives in Toronto, Canada.