First-year students have raised concerns over unauthorized clipboards soliciting for personal contact information circulating during their courses.
The sign-up sheets on the clipboards appear to be from a Canadian company “with 35 years of experience” and offer students up to $20,000 in renumeration, but contain no other identifying information.
The company aims to hire students who would be able to work from their own hometown or around their school, asking for personal information such as their cellphone numbers, faculties, and the city they plan to live in next year.
According to a previous Charlatan article, an organization called the Summer Management Program conducted a similar circulation last year but has not been confirmed to be responsible for this year’s circulation.
Brian Billings, the director of of the Department of University Safety (DUS), said in an email that nothing has been officially reported to the DUS at this time.
The Charlatan reached out to College Pro Painters for comment, but was not able to receive a response in time for publication.
“We have had College Pro Painters (a house painting company) use this type of approach in previous years at Carleton by greeting students at class times asking them to sign up for potential management positions, and have dealt with their representatives having them cease their activities,” Billings said. “There is a no-solicitation policy on campus.”
Billings added that students should contact the DUS should they encounter these unsolicited clipboards.
Rachel Moore, a first-year Indigenous and Canadian studies student, said she saw the clipboard being passed around in her first class for her “Introduction to Human Rights” (HUMR 1001) course.
“My first instinct was to sign and put my information on it,” Moore said, “but once I started reading the stuff that was on the sheet, I was really confused and I didn’t understand why they were asking what they were asking . . . the vagueness of the company’s information made me not want to sign it.”
Moore added that she did not see who initiated the circulation, but found that at least 10 other people had written their information on the sheets.
“It sort of freaked me out to see that I almost signed it, and it definitely left a pit in my stomach,” she said. “Because I’m in my first year, when someone hands you a sheet asking for information you just automatically fill it all out. We don’t always know what we’re signing.”
Shazia Sadaf, the instructor teaching Moore’s human rights class, said she continually warns her students not to sign anything they are unsure of.
“I would never allow a clipboard like that to be passed around in my class without my knowledge,” Sadaf said. “If something like that is being passed around, it has to be legitimate and they have to email me beforehand and ask for a timeslot to see if it could be passed around—that’s the university’s and my protocol.”
She added that she does not know who initiated the circulation, but will ask her students to report anything they know of.
For Emily-Kate Taylor, a first-year criminology student who signed the sheet, the incident left her feeling “completely gutted,” when she signed it in her “Introduction to Sociology” (SOCI 1001) course.
“I remember learning before what employers are allowed to ask and what information you can give, I guess this definitely shows how easy it is for them to get that from students,” Taylor said. “It makes me worried knowing that my information could be used to put me in danger.”
Taylor said she was already looking for summer employment opportunities, and found it hard not to sign the sheet after seeing more than three pages filled with personal information from her classmates.
Alessandro Gianna, a first-year public affairs and policy management student, said he also saw the clipboard circulating in his “Introduction to Economics” (ECON 1001) class. Gianna added that he “felt lucky [he] didn’t end up signing the sheets.”
Steven Reid, Carleton’s media relations officer, said official job postings are available through Carleton’s Career Services.
“Students should never give out their personal information and if they receive a clipboard in class, they should notify the instructor,” Reid said.
Photo by Jasmine Foong
