Student Records

November 30, 1998
TO:OSU Faculty
FROM: Caroline Kerl, Legal Advisor
SUBJECT: Student Records

At a recent Faculty Senate Executive Committee meeting, members of the committee asked questions about faculty members' obligations under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the corresponding Oregon law, ORS 351.070. This seemed a good time to review FERPA's provisions. FERPA is also commonly referred to as the Buckley Amendment.

FERPA gives students certain rights regarding their education records. Education records are those records that are 1) directly related to a student and 2) maintained by an educational institution.

Students have a right to inspect their own education records and students have some control over the disclosure to others of personally identifiable information from their education records. Generally, personally identifiable information may not be disclosed without the student's consent. This includes grades, class schedule, and student employment information.

Certain student records are not subject to protection unless the student specifically requests withholding of these records in advance. Institutions generally disclose student "directory information" upon request, but students may make a binding written request to have their directory information withheld from public disclosure. OSU has defined "directory information" as a student's name, campus and home address and telephone number, class standing, day of birth, major field of study, participation in officially recognized activities and sports, dates of attendance, degrees and awards received and most recent previous educational institution attended by student. The University will shortly be proposing a rule change to add e-mail addresses to this list.

Additionally students may give written consent to public disclosure of education records so long as the records to be released, the purpose of the disclosure and nature of disclosure are agreed upon. For example, student athletes often permit release of grade point averages and photos. In the absence of written consent, these records would not be publicly disclosed. The OSU Athletic Department has a form it provides student athletes which allows students to indicate what information, if any, they would like to disclose. They can also indicate categories of recipients, e.g., news media, prospective employers.

Lastly, institutions may disclose education records without written consent of students to certain state and federal regulatory agencies, persons issuing subpoenas, institution officials having legitimate educational interests and others as identified by law. Institution officials with a legitimate need to know include college and department advisors, EOP, ROTC, Athletic Department and International Programs advisors.

If you have questions about the restrictions FERPA imposes, you may direct them to Ron Oliveira, Associate Registrar (737-4048) or to Caroline Kerl, Legal Advisor (737-2474).