Student associations can use university rosters for the purposes of holding student elections, the National Development Council said on Tuesday, after the National Taiwan University (NTU) Student Association reported that the university had denied its request for the list.
The association said it had planned on hosting its election for National Taiwan University Student Congress at the end of the month, but citing personal data privacy concerns, NTU denied its request for the student roster it said it needs to host the election.
Universities should provide guidance to student associations and other organizations in their exercise of student self-government, an anonymous council official said, citing Article 33 of the University Act (大學法).
For academic, administrative and other purposes, universities collect data on students such as their names, identification numbers and departments, the official said.
By providing this data to students to help them in their self-government, universities would be fulfilling the original purposes of the data’s collection, the official said.
Such use would also be within the rules of Article 15 — “where it is within the necessary scope to perform its statutory duties” — and Article 16 of the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法), the official added.
However, use of personal data should still abide by the principle of proportionality described in Article 5 of the Personal Data Protection Act, the official said.
Although the council believes providing the association with a student roster would not involve the Personal Data Protection Act, it also mentioned that the use of personal data should adhere to the principle of proportionality, NTU said.
It has sent a letter to the Ministry of Education regarding the situation, NTU added.
The council has already explained that providing a student roster would fulfill the original purpose of the data’s collection, the ministry said.
Other schools have also provided student associations with rosters to assist their hosting of elections, it said.
The ministry is to ask NTU to provide its student association with a roster and to take measures to protect the data, it added.
The association has already reduced the original data down to just student identification numbers, association president Tu Chun-ching said.
The council says it is legal, but the university’s president and legal office “cannot even make a judgement on the principle of proportionality,” he said, calling the university’s actions “irresponsible.”
According to the association’s self-government regulations, if it does not elect members of its student congress before the end of the month, it can no longer host the election, it said.
If that is the case, the seats for student representatives from various departments would be left unfilled and NTU might be in breach of the University Act, which requires it to assist students in their self-government, he said.
Student association officers at other universities, including National Chengchi University, Chinese Culture University and National Taiwan Normal University, have said that their respective universities provide them with the support and information they need to host elections.
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