LeMenager removed for Yale web breach

Though Director of Admission Stephen LeMenager revealed to Yale University in May that he had breached its admission website, he received much of the public blame for the incident. Princeton punished him and other admission officers this summer for accessing the site without authorization.

Princeton officials did not describe the punishments, but after June, the face of admissions will look different. LeMenager has been removed from his 18-year post in admissions and temporarily relocated to communications.

In addition, Princeton announced that Dean of Admission Fred Hargadon would retire in June. He had been planning to step down since before this summer, according to Princeton.

Yale notified the FBI of the web breaches after news broke in July that people in Princeton's admission office had falsified their identities to enter restricted pages on the Yale site, which required a name, birth date and social security number.

FBI spokeswoman Lisa Bull said yesterday the case is still open, and Princeton spokeswoman Lauren Robinson-Brown '85 said Princeton is still waiting for an update from federal authorities.

Officials at both universities consider their own investigations closed.

President Tilghman announced the punishments in early August after receiving the results of a three-week internal investigation. She placed LeMenager on paid leave during the investigation.

The investigation concluded that LeMenager used data on Princeton application forms to explore the workings of the Yale website, notified Hargadon and demonstrated his ability to access the admission decisions to several members of his office.

The investigation also concluded that several Princeton admission officials breached the site a total of 14 times out of curiosity.

Tilghman called the actions of the admission officers "violations of basic principles of privacy and confidentiality." Hargadon took responsibility.

Princeton notified every affected applicant, none of whom has sued, Tilghman said.

Neal Katyal, a Georgetown University law professor and Yale Law School graduate who specializes in computer law, said though Princeton admission officials made grave ethical blunders when they accessed the private records, Yale should share in the blame because it set up a site that required only easily obtainable information.

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"Yale University didn't take the appropriate steps to safeguard private data because it used common identifiers, such as a social security number and date of birth — identifiers that are available to malicious hackers as well as people with authorization, such as other officers at other schools," he said.

"It's just like if you leave the keys to your friend's house under her doormat, and a robber comes and steals it," he added. "The robber is primarily the culprit, but you also acted foolish."

Tom Conroy, a Yale spokesman, would not say whether Yale would take any responsibility, only saying it would make the site more secure next year.

Yale first learned of the breach at a May 15 Ivy League admission conference held at the University of Pennsylvania. At the meeting, LeMenager casually told a Yale official he had accessed the site.

There was "no strong reaction" at the meeting to what LeMenager said, according to Brown University admission officer Michael Goldberger. a conference attendee.

At a second meeting on financial aid in California in June, the matter was not discussed, two attendees said. Hargadon was not at either meeting, they said.

Immediately after learning of the breaches, Yale investigated the website and compiled a confidential report June 20 that said there had been unauthorized accesses from the Princeton admission office.

However, Yale officials did not contact Princeton until July 24 when Yale President Richard Levin told Tilghman what Yale had learned.

Yale waited two months to take any action because it wanted to have "thoroughly scrubbed" the report before contacting Tilghman, Yale spokeswoman Helaine Klasky said.

"Yale really wanted to make sure that they had all the facts," Klasky said. "We felt a need to both determine the potential problem and then to try to figure out if there were possibly any other incidences of it."

LeMenager, whose career in Princeton admissions has effectively ended, said he is ready to go forward.

"I am eager to move ahead, and look forward to working with President Tilghman to determine my next position at Princeton," he said in an e-mail. "I have been deeply moved and heartened by the extraordinary support that I have received in the past several weeks, from my colleagues here at Princeton and from hundreds of others across the country."