Student Senate moves forward with investigation into information theft

As the deadline for the Student Senate thieves passed on Thursday at 5 p.m., the body took the next steps in the investigation by filing reports to OUPD and the Office for Community Standards and Student Responsibility. The theft of nine students’ (who are not members of Senate) personal information, such as partial Social Security numbers and personal addresses, was first announced during Wednesday’s Senate meeting by Vice Commissioner of Governmental Affairs Will Klatt. He said that no further investigation would take place if the information was returned to the office by Thursday at 5 p.m. As of 4:45 p.m., the information was not returned. Vice President Caitlyn McDaniel confirmed that there were two people involved in the theft and said there were “rumors and guesses” to whom those people might be, but she did not name them. She also said the theft was not purposeless, assuring that the average OU student would not be affected by the theft. “No student has to worry about identity theft. This was politically-motivated and was meant to be a strategic, political threat. No student will be affected by this except those who were stolen from.” Senate came under criticism on social media for not immediately reporting the theft of the sensitive information. However, McDaniel said that because the information that was stolen did not belong to Senate, it was up to the nine affected students to decide when to make charges. “It’s not Senate’s duty because it was personal property that was taken, so it wasn’t our property,” McDaniel said. “We can’t make the report because it wasn’t ours. [The nine students] will be making the report. They’re the ones who said they’ll wait until five o’clock.” McDaniel did not say what forms were taken or why Senate had the forms in the first place.