PHOENIX — The state’s three universities say the head of the Senate Government Committee is off base with his claims they are illegally selling data about their students.
Representatives of the schools as well as the Arizona Board of Regents say there is no legal basis for the charge by Sen. Jake Hoffman that they did anything wrong in furnishing information that allowed Kamala Harris to send out tens of thousands of text messages urging students to vote for her. In fact, they say, the universities are required by federal law to make that information public unless students opt out. And just a handful have done that.
None of that is satisfying the Queen Creek Republican.
“The breach of students’ personally identifiable information to a political campaign raises serious ethical and legal concerns,” Hoffman told Capitol Media Services. He also said similar information has previously been denied to the Trump campaign, though Hoffman said his evidence comes from “firsthand conversations.”