FAMU Holds Inaugural Data Privacy Awareness Week

January 26, 2024
Andrew Skerritt
Privacy Champions: (from left) Chief Risk Officer Deidre Melton, Chief Compliance & Ethics Officer Rica Calhoun, and Chief Privacy Officer LaTonya Baker during a privacy and data governance workshop. (Credit: Glenn Beil)
Privacy Champions: (from left) Chief Risk Officer Deidre Melton, Chief Compliance & Ethics Officer Rica Calhoun, and Chief Privacy Officer LaTonya Baker during a privacy and data governance workshop. (Credit: Glenn Beil)

By: Briona Hopkins

Florida A&M University (FAMU) held its first Data Privacy Awareness Week, January 21-27, to highlight the importance of protecting sensitive student and employee information.

The effort was led by LaTonya Baker, chief privacy officer and director of Compliance, who urged senior administrators and staff to be privacy champions by using secure passwords and other methods. The Privacy Program’s goal is to empower FAMU with crucial knowledge and tools to safeguard institutional data from hackers and other bad actors.

Faculty and staff gathered this week to be a part of activities across the campus educating the importance of protecting sensitive information.  

On Wednesday, January 24, she hosted the Privacy and Data Governance workshop titled, “Charting the course to Privacy Excellence in Higher Education.”

The workshop was geared toward purposeful discussion on how to protect personal and academic data and ways to promote privacy rights.

During the workshop, Baker shared the information with representatives from various offices across the University, including Academic Affairs, General Counsel, ITS, Budget, Division of Audit, Financial Aid, Office of Communications, University Assessments, and Student Affairs.

“I appreciate the participants for engaging in meaningful discussions,” Baker said. “I am excited to continue charting the course to privacy excellence in higher education.”

The Privacy Champion pledge form was also shared with staff and signed by President Larry Robinson, Ph.D., and the Senior Leadership Team.

Chief Compliance and Ethics Officer Rica Calhoun was thrilled with the awareness being brought to the University.

“Safeguarding personally identifiable information and University data is a collective responsibility for every member of the University community,” Calhoun said. “I am incredibly excited about the continued progress of our data privacy compliance program at FAMU.”

Privacy is an ongoing effort, and the University plans to tackle key issues regarding data sensitivity and privacy.

“We must all work together to create a University culture that values and respects the privacy of every member,” said Baker.

For more information you can contact LaTonya Baker at latonya.baker@famu.edu or visit www.famu.edu for more information.

Here are some tips to protect your data:

  1. Create long (at least 16 characters), unique passwords for each account and device. Use a password manager to store each password – maintaining dozens of passwords securely is now easier than ever.
  2. Turn on multifactor authentication (MFA) wherever it is permitted – this keeps your data safe even if your password is compromised.
  3. Turn on automatic device, software, and browser updates, or make sure you install updates as soon as they are available.
  4. Learn how to identify phishing messages, which can be sent as emails, texts, or direct messages.