A number of Saint Louis University students will be starting the new school year off with a brand new Banner ID number.

According to Cari Wickliffe, Assistant Vice President of the Division of Enrollment Management and Director of Student Financial Services, an e-mail that was sent on Aug. 17 by a SLU staff member contained the Banner ID numbers of approximately 353 students.

“A staff member inadvertently sent a spreadsheet containing several students’ Banner IDs,” said Wickliffe. “My understanding is [the staff member] was sending e-mails to students from a list when it was attached.”

Wickliffe said that immediately after the e-mail was sent, the accounts of the students that were involved were frozen to prevent any breeches of privacy, and e-mails were sent to affected students to explain what had happened.

The student who received the e-mail containing the Banner numbers was also immediately contacted and informed about the incident.

The Banner IDs of the students involved have been changed, and the students were given new student ID cards free of charge.

“The student who received the e-mail responded very quickly and deleted and trashed [it] without reading it,” said Wickliffe.

Ann Gioia, Director of Parking and Card Services, said that almost all of the students involved have come to pick up their new ID cards.

According to Gioia, switching meal plans to new Banner ID numbers during the first week of school was difficult.

“It was a fairly lengthy process to get people moved over,” said Gioia.

Michael Tarkey, a sophomore biology major, was one of the affected students.

Tarkey said that he received the e-mail explaining that his Banner ID number was “mistakenly sent to someone,” and he picked up his new student ID card at Parking and Card Services, where there was a list of everyone involved.

“It doesn’t worry me too much. I guess mistakes are made,” said Tarkey. “Nothing has really happened from it.”

Tarkey said the school apologized for the inconvenience.

“I think if it were to happen again it would be a big deal,” said Tarkey.

This is not the first time something like this has happened at SLU.

According to Wickliffe, a similar event took place in November of 2008 when the names and Banner ID numbers of about 420 students were inadvertently sent to a staff member and 20 students.

Wickliffe said that although these events have been complete accidents, steps are being taken to prevent a repeat of this problem.

“It’s a lesson learned. We have a protocol outlined,” said Wickliffe.

“We do look at all of the processes and procedures to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.”

According to Wickliffe, one mean used to prevent the mistake is a program that forces e-mail senders to individually pick out the recipient of the message. “Send This File,” available through MySLU, works to avoid accidental attachments and recipient name confusion.

Wickliffe said other steps include training for new employees or current employees unfamiliar with Google e-mail. Printed outlines have also been made to explain the system in detail.

Wickliffe said very few problems could occur using only the information that was sent in the e-mail.

“There were no passwords, PIN numbers, social security numbers, dates of birth, [or] addresses included in the e-mail,” said Wickliffe.

“[There’s] not a whole lot you can do with just a Banner ID.”

Wickliffe explained the information could be used on department specific on-paper forms, but little else.

Despite minimal consequences, new Banner identification numbers and student ID cards are reissued by the school due to basic privacy issues.

“It was still an identifier and it still was shared.” said Wickliffe.