Message from Dr. Briggs

September 20, 2006

Dear Student:

I am proud to serve as the new president of Berry and particularly proud of Berry’s long history of putting students first in all we do.  It is in that tradition that I write to you today.

I regret to share that we have had an incident that may have compromised the confidentiality of some of our financial aid data.  College officials were notified late Monday afternoon that student information from Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms collected during the 2005-06 academic year has been misplaced by an external financial aid consultant.  This data, including name, Social Security number and reported income, involves 2,093 students or potential students who submitted a FAFSA to Berry in 2005-06.  Of those, 1,322 are currently enrolled at Berry.  Based on what we know at this time, no first-year students are involved.

We have spent the day investigating the situation and at this point have no reason to believe that information has been obtained by unauthorized persons or used fraudulently.  Both the  financial aid vendor and Berry College staff are aggressively searching for the misplaced information, but we wanted to make you immediately aware of the situation.  I want to clarify that our administrative database has not been compromised.  Your VikingWeb account and our student database are secure.

We continue to work on the speedy recovery of the information.  We are also committed to assisting you in this process.  We have created this special Web page with the most up to date information about the situation.

Under Georgia law, you are eligible to receive one free report annually from each of the major credit reporting agencies.  To enhance this protection, Berry has contracted with Equifax, one of these agencies, to provide updates and reports for the next 12 months. This Web site contains information about registering for this service with Equifax. You will need your personal passcode, which is included in a letter being sent to the campus P.O. Box of each person affected.

We encourage you to call us if your credit report suggests that your security has been compromised as a result of this incident.  In addition, Georgia residents can contact the Georgia Office of Consumer Affairs, Consumer Protection site on identity theft:  http://www.georgia.gov/00/article/0,2086,5426814_39039081_39480072,00.html
Other states have similar Web sites for additional information.

If you have other questions I have not addressed, we have set up a special hotline for your calls.  You can call 1-800- 961-4963 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Weekdays to speak with a staff member who will assist you in answering questions or put you in touch with the best campus resource to respond to your concerns.  As I have additional information, I will share it with you via e-mail and the special Web site.

I regret deeply that this unacceptable breach has occurred.  We are committed to safeguarding your information and we are reviewing all of our policies and procedures and those of our vendors to ensure that this situation never happens again.   We take seriously our role as the guardian of your personal information and we are putting measures into place that ensure we continue to earn your trust.

Please accept my apology that this incident has occurred and for any inconvenience it causes you or your family. 

Sincerely,

Stephen R. Briggs
President