3.1.16 The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act - FERPA
Student Academic Records
The Registrar maintains a master roster of all students which lists personal information. After appropriate training and with the approval of the Vice-President for Academic Affairs, members of the faculty and staff may access student records electronically.
Confidentiality of Student Records
Piedmont University complies with all requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 as amended. Complete information is available in the Office of the Registrar and on the Registrar’s website at http://www.piedmont.edu/privacy-act.
The law defines student education records to include “records, files, documents, and other materials which contain information directly related to a student and are maintained by a university or by a person acting for a university.” Within 45 days of receiving a request, universities must allow students to inspect those education records. Excluded from the definition of student education records are records made about students by teachers and administrators for their own use and not shown to others.
Confidential letters of recommendation or evaluations which were in the records prior to January 1, 1975, need not be made available to students. For letters after that date, the law allows students to waive rights of access if the letters have to do with admission, employment, or honors, if the letters are used only for those purposes, and if students are told, on their request, the names of all letter writers. No student or applicant may be required to execute a waiver.
Students have the right to challenge the contents of their educational records and to secure correction of inaccurate or misleading information. Students may insert into their records a written explanation respecting the content of such records. Students may challenge a grade in their records only on the ground that it was inaccurately recorded, not that it was different than the instructor ought to have recorded.
Faculty, administrators, and similar professional personnel (in the same institution) may look at the record if they have a “legitimate educational interest.”
The university may transfer information to other educational institutions in which the student intends or seeks to enroll, in connection with a student’s application for, or receipt of, financial aid, and to public officials enumerated as follows:
- State and local officials to whom state law in effect on November 19, 1974, required information to be reported.
- Organizations like ETS and CEEB in connection with developing, validating, or administering predictive tests, administering student aid programs, and improving instruction.
- Accrediting organizations in order to carry out their accrediting functions.
- Parent(s) of a student who is a dependent for income tax purposes.
- Appropriate persons in the case of health and safety emergencies.
Directory information may be released without the consent of a student unless the student specifically asks that prior consent be obtained. Requests for non-disclosure will be honored for only one academic year; therefore, authorization to withhold directory information must be filed annually in the Office of the Registrar. Directory information includes a student’s name, telephone listing, e-mail address, date and place of birth, major field of study, participation in officially recognized activities and sports, weights and heights of members of athletic teams, dates of attendance, degrees and awards received, and the most recent previous educational institution attended by the student. A university must publish a list of what it designates as directory information and give each student a reasonable period of time to ask that any and all such information not be released without prior consent.
Other than in the exceptions listed, or in the case of directory information, or in responding to judicial process, employees of a university may not release personally identifiable information in education records or allow anyone access to those records, unless the student has given written consent specifying records to be released, the reasons for such release and to whom, and a copy of the released records is furnished to the student.
Educational agencies and institutions are permitted to disclose personally identifiable information from students’ education records, without consent, in connection with a health or safety emergency. Under the health and safety emergency exception, universities will be able to contact anyone, including parents, potential victims, a student’s previous schools, and law enforcement authorities if that would help diffuse or assess the danger of imminent harm to the students or others. The university will be required to record the articulable and significant threat that formed the basis for the nonconsensual disclosure; they must also record the parties to whom information was disclosed. This document becomes part of the education record and will be subject to FERPA’s inspection, review, amendment, and nondisclosure requirements.
No information concerning a student’s education record may be disclosed over the telephone to anyone, even to the student.
Student Financial Aid Records
The Office of Financial Aid maintains a master file of students who receive financial aid. Piedmont University complies with the FERPA requirement that student financial aid records are maintained as confidential data, and will release files only to the student, who must request such data in person.