A computer glitch in Ohio University’s Institutional Research data system brought an unwelcome surprise late October to the family of Andrea Robinson, a freshman who died of bacterial meningitis last year.
A letter addressed to Andrea Robinson arrived at her Cleveland Heights home in October, noting that “as the 2010-11 fall academic quarter is underway at (OU), we noticed that someone is missing – you!” The letter also asked her to complete a brief survey about her decision to not return to OU.
Joe Robinson, Andrea’s father, sent a letter to Dean of Students Ryan Lombardi and Associate Provost for Institutional Research and Assessment Michael Williford in early November expressing his confusion and disappointment.
“It has become quite obvious that you have forgotten about Andrea Robinson and her family,” Joe Robinson said in the letter. “… I cannot even begin to tell you how much this not only hurt me but has proven to me how impersonal (OU) is.”
Williford, who signed the letter addressed to Andrea Robinson, said the mistake was caused by “an extremely rare combination of factors in student data processing.” He declined to elaborate further, citing OU policy and student privacy laws.
“Institutional Research does tens of thousands of mailings each year as part of (OU)’s student assessment program,” Williford said in an e-mail. “We plan for every known contingency; each of our studies has a complicated sampling plan.”
Williford also said that Institutional Research has now “addressed this issue so that it will never happen again.”
Typically, after a student dies, the administration marks him or her as “deceased” and stops mailings to the student’s home, Lombardi said. Andrea Robinson was marked as deceased soon after her death, but a coding error caused her name to appear on Institutional Research’s list, he said.
This is the first time in recent memory this type of error has occurred, Lombardi said.
After the incident, Lombardi attempted to contact Joe Robinson via telephone to apologize, and OU President Roderick McDavis sent him a letter to “communicate his profound regret on behalf of (OU).”
In his letter to Lombardi and Williford, Joe Robinson also questioned OU’s efforts to prevent additional cases of bacterial meningitis on campus. Since Andrea Robinson’s death in February, there has been one additional case at OU of Type B bacterial meningitis, which is not prevented by meningitis vaccines.
E-mails sent to students and parents before Andrea Robinson’s death encouraged students with meningitis symptoms to seek medical attention. The messages also linked to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, which provides additional information about meningitis and vaccines.
The CDC came to OU last March to investigate the meningitis outbreak on campus. Investigators concluded that to prevent further cases, students should refrain from “high-risk behavior” such as smoking, drinking, not getting enough sleep, sharing drinking glasses and having multiple sexual partners. Meningitis is spread through bodily fluids.
CDC officials will return to Athens this quarter to test the carriage rate on campus, Lombardi said.
“They’ll do a random sample that is statistically significant … to try to determine how many students carry it,” he said. “At least we’ll know whether we’re right in line with the national average or not.”