Arizona State won’t release COVID-19 data
Even after parties last weekend, school cites privacy over sunshine
PHOENIX – The first weekend after classes started at Arizona State University brought parties and people in groups not wearing masks while hanging out together on campus. Tempe Police cited multiple offcampus parties last weekend.
But the public won’t know whether these parties and group activities, or even students gathering in classes or dorms, have resulted in additional COVID-19 cases.
Arizona State will not disclose how many cases it has on campus or among its students and employees, nor the locations of any cases or exposures, to the general public, citing “privacy issues.”
The Arizona attorney general has previously said universities can disclose cases as long as the information doesn’t identify individuals. Experts on government transparency say there’s no reason this information should be withheld.
And other universities across the country are publicly disclosing case numbers.
Not only can the number of cases be disclosed, but the university should also release this information, said Frank LoMonte, director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida.
“First of all, families need to know whether there are four cases or 400 cases so that they can make an educated decision about whether it’s safe to go there,” LoMonte said.
“Also, the public needs to be able to evaluate whether the government officials who run this public institution are making wise decisions or not. Only by seeing the data that the administrators have can the public adequately evaluate whether they are doing their jobs properly.”
Tempe police issued nine party citations last weekend, including six that were related to students gathering, according to the Tempe Police Department.
The department did not provide further information about the incidents, or what last weekend’s citations were specifically for. Citations are typically issued for loud music, littering, parking violations and underage drinking.
Police officers are conducting weekend patrols in the neighborhoods hoping to crack down on loud or large gatherings, the city said in a news release Monday.
The patrols are intended to educate hosts and attendees on local and state laws and officers will take enforcement action if needed.
Citation fines are $250 for the first time an officer responds to a home for a party, $1,000 for the second offense and $1,500 for each offense after that. Students who attend or host parties could be disciplined by the school, too, the city said.
In addition to the weekend patrols, officers are visiting downtown businesses to encourage owners and customers to follow the city’s mask ordinance and physical distancing guidelines.
“It is vital that college and university students in Tempe wear masks in public, avoid large groups and use physical distancing,” Mayor Corey Woods said in a statement Monday.
An Arizona State University police spokesperson said they were not aware of any gatherings reported on campus last weekend, so no citations were issued. Off-campus parties would be under the jurisdiction of local police departments.
LoMonte, the transparency expert, said many universities across the country have provided information on cases tied to campus without getting in trouble with the U.S. Department of Education over violating the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the law often cited to prevent disclosure of student records.
“They seem to have really wedded themselves to this legal interpretation, but it’s certainly not the prevailing legal interpretation around the country,” he said.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which prevents the disclosure of private health information to outside parties, also doesn’t apply to releasing an aggregate total of cases at a college, he said.
“There’s almost certainly no privacy law that forbids disclosing these statistics,” he said.
As long as information released doesn’t allow a person without knowledge of the case to track it back to an individual, it should be able to be disclosed, he said.
“Nobody is going to be able to Sherlock Holmes their way into figuring out the name of a student from a number like one, two or three. No one is able to reverse-engineer numbers like that,” he said.
Arizona State’s position that there are privacy concerns differs from many colleges throughout the country, and also from some within the state.
The University of Arizona is publishing the number of cases on campus.
So far, of the more than 8,000 people tested as part of UA’s reentry plans, 27 have tested positive, the school’s website shows.
Northern Arizona University’s position is aligned with Arizona State. NAU has not released the number of positive cases on campus.