Upon learning of the mistake Feb. 4, the information was removed immediately, according to a release issued Monday by Bryan Taylor, communication director for Rose-Hulman.
The college has no evidence that any unauthorized individuals have copied or are using the information, officials said, and affected students were notified of the situation.
"Even though we believe the potential risk is minimal," Taylor said, "students were advised to consider submitting a fraud alert to one of three national credit reporting agencies to make it more difficult for fraud to occur."
An employee inadvertently posted the information to a public site accessible on the Internet. A student who was doing a search for his name came across the site on Feb. 4, according to Taylor.
"It was not easily accessible," Taylor said.
In addition to informing the affected students, Rose-Hulman notified faculty, staff and parents of students about the situation.
Also, the college has established a Web site to provide answers to frequently asked questions about the incident.
"We want to emphasize that this was an isolated incident, and that no outsiders have breached our securities," Taylor wrote in the release. "Rose-Hulman is committed to maintaining the privacy of student information and sincerely regrets any inconvenience this isolated incident may have caused."
Deb Kelly can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or deb.kelly@tribstar.com.