Universities Are Not Universal

At the university where I work, we frequently get calls from employers and other universities who need to double-check if someone has been enrolled at our institution. Normally, they are pretty easy calls, but this one is not.

Caller: “Hello, I am calling from [Background Check Agency] to verify if an applicant attended your university.”

Me: “I would be happy to help! What are the student’s first and last name and date of birth?”

I find only one student with that first and last name. I confirm the spelling is accurate, but the date of birth we have is slightly different — think 1/18/1995 versus 2/18/1994. The email address and phone number he gives me also match what we have in our system, so I figure there must have been some kind of typo with the date of birth.

Me: “I think I have the correct student, but the date of birth is different. What is the degree she said she has?”

Caller: “The student says she earned a BA in Illustration in 2018. Is this correct?”

Me: “We do not offer that kind of degree. I see here that the student took an art class through us in high school for college credit in 2015, but that’s it. It’s possible the student earned her BA at another school, but we have no way to verify that on our end.”

Caller: “I see. And just to confirm, you are [Art University]?”

Me: “No, we are [My University.]”

Caller: “Oh. Are those different schools?”

I then had to explain to a grown man why I could not pull up the records of a student who attended a different university than mine and that he would need to call them instead. He was polite about it, but I’m still baffled by his reaction.