When a well-dressed man carrying a leather briefcase took the
stage last quarter in first-year undeclared student Amanda
York’s Astronomy 3 lecture, she couldn’t help but
listen.
“He told (students in) the class that they could make
$5,000 this summer with a paid internship as district managers for
a large corporation,” York said.
Along with others in the class, she filled out a request for
more information and received a phone call that same afternoon.
When York asked for further details about the internship, the man
refused to divulge anything but told her to come to a meeting the
next day in front of the Bruin Bear.
“The internship that he told us about ended up being a
manual labor job painting houses. He worked for an outside company,
just wanting to profit off of UCLA students,” she said.
“It was a complete scam.”
York is hardly the only UCLA student to be targeted. Groups give
presentations in campus lecture halls every day. Some are
well-known organizations such as Dance Marathon or Relay for Life,
which inform students about important events and opportunities.
These groups should be allowed to make presentations because
they are affiliated with UCLA and have established themselves as
reputable organizations.
However, many recruiters from outside groups also come to UCLA
in hopes of targeting students for various profitable
endeavors.
Usually they represent companies touting internships or offering
school-related services, and after giving a presentation (sometimes
using the classroom’s audio equipment) they pass around slips
of paper asking students about academic interests, their plans for
the summer and personal contact information.
Students are simply told to fill out the forms, regardless of
whether or not they are actually interested in the presentations.
Many students comply, underestimating the dangers of providing such
information to outside agencies not affiliated with UCLA, which are
consequently not subject to campus privacy regulations.
Privacy concerns aside, advertising presentations also turn
classrooms into chaotic, unpleasant learning environments. Many of
the leaflets end up on the floor, making a lecture hall look like
the New York Stock Exchange after a busy day of trading. Passing
around papers also distracts others. These groups essentially bring
the pandemonium of Bruin Walk into the classroom.
Some advertising presentations are also lengthy and cut into
class time. First-year political science student Michelle Lyon
recalled one presentation that lasted six minutes.
“It took away from the valuable time that the professor
had,” she said.
I was approached by an outside advertising agency in my very
first lecture at UCLA. Before the professor even entered the room,
a woman began passing out leaflets about an LSAT preparation
class.
I had never even heard of the LSAT at the time. I definitely
didn’t need to receive information about how to prepare for
it.
My classmates, who were mostly first-year students, were largely
in the same boat. Since then, the number of times I’ve been
in a situation similar to this has only increased.Students should
remember that unless their professor or TA hands them something to
fill out, they are never obligated to provide a third party their
information.
If they are interested in what a presenter has discussed,
students should speak to that person directly about when they will
be meeting. If the presenter says he isn’t sure about
specifics and persists in requesting contact information, this is a
warning sign.
Professors can keep advertisers out of the classroom by
questioning all people who ask to take the stage. Are you
affiliated with an on-campus group? How long will your presentation
last? Professors should not hesitate to exercise their authority to
dismiss questionable people.
Advertising presentations comprise a narrow scope of options
compared to the vast opportunities available to students if they
take the initiative to seek them out. If students are interested in
summer internships or other outside services, they shouldn’t
trust a company simply because the professor has allowed one of its
employees to speak to the class.
UCLA has amazing resources that can be used to obtain
information about internships and other programs.
The Career Center, counseling offices, libraries and computer
labs can provide information about hundreds of opportunities while
reducing the risk of dangerously releasing personal information or
falling for a scam.
So the next time an organization comes into your lecture and
asks you for personal information, unless they are a trusted UCLA
organization, take that leaflet and put it where it belongs ““
in the garbage can.
Send anything but advertisements to Noble at
bnoble@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to
viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.