ALL of the financial records of ALL of the students who attend any school in the UW system…are supposed to be federally protected.

Governor Doyle is at it again folks, and this time he is traipsing through our (supposedly) protected and private university financial aid files. Well, not the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee specifically: He has our fellow students in Madison much closer to him to help do his bidding.

As many people know, the governor of our beloved state greatly esteems our UW system, seeing as he can sway the amount of funds, which get allotted to University Budgets. Putting him in this position (the same position all other governors have been in before him) gives him a bit of power, and we all know what happens to people in places of power: They want more of it.

In the last week, instructions have been handed down from “on high” in Madison that made their way into the office of Michelle Crandon, the associate director for Student Financial Services at UW. Crandon did as she was told: She sent out letters to 33 students asking for their “help, based on their circumstances.”

Summed up, the letter asked these students to voluntarily help personalize Doyle’s point in a press conference that was scheduled for Oct. 9. Doyle wanted the state legislators to see faces to go with the problem of how the budget impasse has affected the people dependent on state funding.

Now some of you may be thinking, “What’s the problem here? The budget needs to be finalized. Let’s do something that will help that process.”

Well, the problem lies in the fact that ALL of the financial records of ALL of the students who attend any school in the UW system, and any student in any college or university for that matter, are supposed to be federally protected.

There are only three kinds of people who are supposed to see those files: the students, the financial aid office staff, and the lending institution. Am I missing the part where it is OK for the governor to ask someone to look into the files and do some snooping?

The other big problem that pops up here is that Crandon, a state employee on state time, is being paid to do work with a political agenda. The last time someone in Madison did something like this, they ended up in a state prison.

I understand that state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has his work cut out for him with the horrific events in Crandon, but shouldn’t someone in his office be looking at this before Doyle gets his greasy fingers on more student files? When will the abuse of power end in Madison? When will we ever be able to find a politician who will actually do something right for a change?

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