From: CU-Boulder Administrative E-Memo (memofrom@Colorado.EDU)
Date: Wed Jan 31 2007 - 22:10:31 MST
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 22:10:31 -0700 (MST) From: CU-Boulder Administrative E-Memo <memofrom@Colorado.EDU> Subject: FERPA Privacy Requirements - Student Educational Records
TO: Boulder Campus Faculty Including TAs and GPTIs, Staff, Deans,
Directors, Dept Chairs, System Administration
FROM: Office of the Registrar
SENDER: Gordon Russell, Associate Registrar
DATE: January 29, 2007
SUBJECT: FERPA Privacy Requirements - Student Educational Records
Now that the Spring semester is underway, I want to re-emphasize to each of you
the federal student privacy requirements, as well as student directory
information guidelines. Student privacy requirements are delineated in the
Federal Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974, a summary of which is available
for your review at http://registrar.colorado.edu/regulations/ferpa_guide.html.
FERPA sets guidelines for higher education institutions that protect students'
rights with respect to their educational records and other personally
identifiable information. Violations of student rights can lead to serious
consequences, such as lawsuits and/or withholding of federal funds to the
University.
As the semester gets underway, please recall that:
1. Circulation or posting of class/grade rosters, which display students' names
and ID numbers, is a FERPA violation. Faculty may display a roster of students'
names in a section of a course on a protected website or an overhead that is
available to students of that section only, but may not create a public posting
identifying students enrolled in a section of a course.
2. FERPA does not allow any public posting of student information with any part
of the name, student identification number, social security number, or any
other personally identifiable information. Students' grades may be posted
without written permission, if they are not posted in a personally identifiable
manner. If grade posting strips are created with random identifiers, they must
not appear in alphabetical order according to students' names. The Testing and
Assessment Center of Imaging Services can provide test scores and mid-term
grades suitable for uploading into WebCT, the Boulder Campus Web course tool.
Students may view their assessment and mid-term grades in a secure manner using
WebCT. Please contact the IT Service Center at 303-735-HELP (5-4357) to have
your course made available in WebCT. Visit
http://www.colorado.edu/its/docs/webct/scanwebct.html to learn more about
uploading grades to WebCT. Contact Imaging Services at (303) 492-6700,
http://www.colorado.edu/tacenter .
3. Photographs of students are considered personally identifiable information,
and as such they may not be posted to a course website or to other locations,
without the prior written consent of the student.
4. As an instructor or staff member, if you keep written notes on a student in
your desk or office to which other people have access, these notes constitute
part of the student educational record and are subject to all the provision of
FERPA. Sole possession notes, however, are not subject to FERPA. Sole
possession notes are records that are kept in the sole possession of the maker,
are used only as a personal memory aid, and are not accessible or revealed to
any other person except a temporary substitute for the maker of the record.
STUDENT DIRECTORY INFORMATION
Under the terms of FERPA, the University of Colorado at Boulder has established
the following "directory information." This information may be released to
those requesting it, unless the student has a PRIVACY code on their record.
1. Names
2. Mailing and permanent addresses
3. Local /mailing telephone numbers
4. Campus e-mail address
5. Dates of attendance
6. Registration or enrollment status (Full-time/Part-time) 7. Class (Freshman,
Sophomore, etc.) 8. College. 9.Previous education institutions attended. 10.
Major field of study 11. Degree(s), honors and awards received and dates
conferred 12. Past and present participation in officially recognized sports
and activities 13. Physical factors (height/weight) of athletes 14. Date and
place of birth 15. Classroom seating assignments. 16. Tutors and
teaching/research assistants who are students (not names of tutors of
individual students. 17. College Opportunity Fund application and
authorization status. 18. Buff OneCard Photo (For additional information on
release of Buff OneCard photos please check the website listed above.)
PRIVACY / NON-RELEASE OF DIRECTORY INFORMATION
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) guarantees
students the right of non-disclosure of directory information. We call these
options privacy designations. Students may elect to withhold directory
information by placing one of the two "privacy" designations on their academic
records. There are two types of privacy students may elect on the Boulder
Campus: S - for semi-privacy or limited privacy. This is for students who want
to cut down on the volume of communication they receive from inside and outside
of the university, but allows the University to release directory information
to individual callers. If you see this code, there are no special restrictions
on these students. P - for full privacy. These are small in number, but these
students have requested that the university disclose no information about their
enrollment.
For faculty and staff that use SIS the word PRIVATE will appear under the
student's name on most screens. In the event that someone asks about a student
with a full privacy on their records, you should reply, "I have no information
about this person." In addition, if someone comes into your office claiming to
be a student on full privacy, asking for information about their records, you
must require a photo ID to verify their identity unless you know the student.
In conclusion, it is strongly recommended that all faculty, and any staff
member that works with student data, review the information at
http://registrar.colorado.edu/regulations/ferpa_training.html . In addition,
this should be incorporated into all new employee training, RA/TA training,
etc. In an effort to assist your faculty and staff, the Registrar's Office has
available a limited number of FERPA bookmarks. These bookmarks summarize
important privacy requirements, and are available by contacting Carol Mash,
Academic Records Manager, at carol.mash@colorado.edu.
Thank you for your efforts to keep our campus FERPA compliant. If you have any
questions, please email me at gordon.russell@colorado.edu.
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