Students now have more control over what personal information is available on the Internet.
    The K-State white pages were updated Aug. 28, so students, faculty and staff could choose what information is displayed on the online directory.
    "The Web pages were redesigned based on feedback from students and faculty on how they use it and how it can be presented better, including how your personal information can be displayed," said Assistant Director of Information Systems Scott Finkeldei.
    Students can decide whether to allow their class, curricula, local and permanent addresses, phone numbers and Web addresses to be displayed.
    However, students cannot block their name and e-mail address without signing a nondisclosure form at the registrar's office. Signing the nondisclosure form, however, prevents the university from releasing any information about a student.
    Faculty members will not be able to remove their office phone numbers, titles or departments.
    "We added opt-out abilities to your eProfile, so students, faculty and staff are able to go to their eProfile and indicate what parts of their personal information they would like to be displayed, in search results, and what parts they would not like to have displayed," Finkeldei said.
    To change profiles, students must go to https://eid.k-state.edu, and select "Manage your People Directory Settings," under the People Directory Settings.
    There, students can check boxes to select what personal information is shown on the K-State white pages.
    "Because the People Search is a public Web page, available to anyone, people wanted to be able to control what they did have there and what they didn't have there," Finkeldei said.
    Before the redesign, students could not block specific items from their profiles.
    They could sign the nondisclosure form, but that would prevent the registrar's office from releasing any information about the student, including status as a K-State student. This made it more difficult for students to prove they were actually attending the university.
    "Before this, people had to call the registrar's office or visit the registrar's office and fill out a form, so this allowed accessibility to be right in your hands, on the Web," Finkeldei said. "So it was really about making it easier to use for this opt-out bit."
    The K-State white pages also got a new look, and the addition of a Google-search appliance with the redesign.
    The printed version of the campus phone book still will contain students' information, unless a student has signed the nondisclosure form.
    While the system is new, the idea has been around for some time.
    "It was instigated several years ago," said Associate Registrar Gunile DeVault. "It has just now come to fruition."
    The redesign came from a collaborative effort of the registrar's office, the Student Governing Association, computing and telecommunications services, and the Office of Mediated Education, said Monty Nielsen, university registrar.
    "We hope students will find this to be supportive of their needs," Nielsen said.