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The Office of Advancement IT has under its purview the financial and fundraising databases. This group is responsible for maintaining security, access rights, maintenance, reporting, and general training on these two databases. Advancement Services also supports the hardware and IT infrastructure of the division in coordination with the EITS group from UGA. Advancement Services adheres to the rules set forth by UGA’s Enterprise Information Technology Services (EITS) and the Foundation’s external auditors.
To protect the confidentiality and privacy of constituency, access to the GAIL and FAME databases is granted on a need-to-know basis once the employee is trained. Restricting access to information to employees who truly need it to perform their jobs lessens the possibility of misuse of the data. The following access policies will apply to all forms of information held by the division including electronic and hard copy formats. Printouts of information will be treated in the same manner as electronic files, downloads, or photocopies of alumni files. Users of these systems may not disseminate information obtained from the system to other employees or non-employees without following the explicit instructions under the “Retrieving Data” section of each application’s policy. Violation of these data policies will result in revocation of access and can result in termination of employment.
Because the University of Georgia is a public institution, records held by this division can be considered part of the public domain and are subject to the Open Records Act. Exceptions to this policy include but not limited to the fundraising system and all its data. While the Buckley Amendment deals with the confidentiality of student records and allows access to directory information only in its attempt to insure the student’s rights to privacy, it does not specifically address what happens to this information after the student graduates. In keeping with the spirit of the Buckley Amendment, however, many alumni records offices throughout the country grant directory information upon request on an individual basis once the requestor’s identity is verified. Directory information includes name, address (physical residential address), degree, degree year, and major.