1. Harvard photographed classrooms during classes in order to study attendance.
2. Jeremy does not understand why this is a big deal.
ADDENDUM: Quote at end of story:
“We know there are hundreds of cameras* all over Harvard, and we accept that they’re there for protection and safety and security,” Burgard said. “But the idea that photographs will be taken of a class in progress without having informed the students, much less the professor, is something very different. That is surveillance.”
* The cameras in question, which are doing something different than surveillance, are often called “surveillance cameras.”
scatterplot 
Seriously. Would it be wrong to use attendance records to study attendance?
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A picture every minute seems more than necessary for the stated purpose of the study.
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This seems like an over-reaction to me. There’s an exemption from IRB review for institutional research that is purely for internal use and not external publications. It is also not illegal to do statistical analyses of grading patterns. Reading students’ email to find out who “leaked” seems more problematic to me, although all of us who are employees (especially of public institutions) know that we cannot treat our email as private.
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