No info sold
Re: Admin selling students’ info to telemarketers (Nov. 20)
After reading your article, I’m left wondering how you came up with the headline. It is entirely misleading and unwarranted given the content of your story.
No student or alumni information has ever been sold to any telemarketing firm. A telemarketing service is contracted by the university in order to contact alumni about various affinity programs and services. From time to time we are contacted by alumni (like Ms. Clenman) who have provided us with valuable feedback on our marketing efforts. Some of this feedback is negative but constructive, and from this we try to make improvements in the way that we communicate with our alumni. Much of the feedback is however positive. Our affinity programs provide much needed funding to student groups, alumni programs, and the divisions of the university. Presently there are 45,000 individual affinity accounts at the University of Toronto, each generating support for this institution.
Finally, please be reminded that there are no affinity direct mail or telemarketing campaigns targeted at the undergraduate or graduate student populations. No personal data pertaining to the student population is ever gathered or shared with any affinity partner.
I appreciate the opportunity to clarify what I believe to be a completely misleading headline.
Kyle Winters
Director, Marketing Programs
University of Toronto
What’s wrong with that?
Re: Admin selling students’ info to telemarketers (Nov. 20)
What’s wrong with that? I worked summers for a telemarketing company, which filled out credit-card applications for MBNA by calling people at their homes and even offices. Institutions such as U of T tie up with MBNA to promote credit cards that carry the university’s name. The university gets a cut on most transactions and is able to utilize that money. And above all, it’s a very competitive card.
There is nothing wrong in being offered something good for you and good for your alma mater. Besides, massive telemarketing campaigns such as that of MBNA support a lot of jobs, possibly hundreds in the GTA alone. Most employees are students or new immigrants. As regards the specific case mentioned in your article-I do know that even if the credit-card application had been filled by someone else, it would have been rejected by quality control, at least in my ex-company.
I fear the Varsity can do more harm than good with this article, since university administrators, leery of criticism by the most widely read newspaper on campus, may simply decide to scrap this credit-card program. This would indirectly affect jobs and deprive alumni of the opportunity to contribute in ways other than occasional million dollar grants. So the next time you receive a telemarketing call, if you are not interested even a wee bit, just say sorry and hang-up. I bet the telemarketer won’t mind at all.
Disclaimer: I am not associated with MBNA in any way now.
Varun Mathur
Our mistake
Re: Blues tie China reds (Nov. 17)
Matt Somers refers to “a boatload full of Chinese supporters” at an exhibition match between the Chinese national women’s hockey team and the U of T Varsity Blues.
To the best of my knowledge, nowadays most Chinese nationals come to Canada by plane, as individuals or in small family groups. I would hazard a guess that most of the people of Chinese descent at that game-whether they were Chinese-Canadians, permanent residents of Chinese descent, resident aliens of Chinese nationality, or just people who looked Chinese-arrived (like the non-Chinese in the audience) on foot, by car, or by TTC, individually or in small groups of friends and family members. Nobody by boat, and no bodies by the boatload.
Perhaps your writer intended to make an explicit reference to “Mongol Hordes,” “the Yellow Peril,” or “boatloads of illegal immigrants” crashing our fair (and fair-skinned) shores. Otherwise why resort to racist, stereotypical language?
Carsey Yee
