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Privacy Information
PRIVACY OF INFORMATION
Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, the following data are designated as directory information and may be made public unless the student desires to withhold it: student’s name, local mailing address, telephone listing, date and place of birth, major field of study, military service status, participation in officially recognized activities and sports, dates of University attendance, degrees and awards received, and the most recent previous education agency or institution attended. Any undergraduate or graduate student wishing to withhold this information should, within 10 days after the first class day, complete the appropriate form, available at the Registrar’s Office.
PRIVACY FERPA
FERPA stands for Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, as Amended. It is commonly known as FERPA, the Privacy Act or the Buckley Amendment. It is a federal law designed to protect the privacy of educational records, to establish the right of students to inspect and review their educational records and to provide guidelines for the correction of inaccurate and misleading data through informal and formal hearings.
FERPA allows release of specified items but does not require it. Items that may be released are called directory information. Tarleton State University has classified these items as directory information: student’s name, local address, home address, telephone listing, date and place of birth, major field of study, military service status, religious preference, participation in officially recognized activities and sports, dates of University attendance, degrees and awards received, and the most recent previous education agency or institution attended.
Students may place a directory hold on any or all of this information by completing the Information Release form and turning it in to the Registrar's Office. It is also available on the Registrar's web page. After this information is entered, a message block will appear on the monitor screen and indicate that the student's records are confidential. "Confidential" will also appear in the top left hand corner of the screen when that student's records are pulled up.
Items that can never be identified as directory information are a student's social security number or institutional identification number, race/ethnicity, citizenship, nationality, gender, grades, GPA, or class schedule.
A student educational record is any record, with certain exceptions, maintained by an institution that is directly related to a student or students. This record can contain a student's name, or students' names, or information from which an individual student, or students, can be personally (individually) identified. These records include files, documents and materials in whatever medium (handwriting, print, monitor, screen, tapes, disks, film, microfilm, microfiche or notes) that contain information directly related to students and from which students can be personally identified.
If ever in doubt whether information may be released, DON'T. Please call the Registrar's Office (968-9417). They will help you determine if the information is an educational record and/or whether it may be disclosed without written consent. To be safe, always think written consent.
A legitimate educational interest shall mean any authorized interest, or activity undertaken in the name of the University for which access to an education record is necessary or appropriate to the proper performance of the undertaking.
This means if a student is assigned to you for advising, you have a legitimate educational interest and may access his/her records. If a good friend asks you to tell him the grades his daughter has made, DON'T. This has two problems. First, unless this student is your advisee, you do not have a legitimate educational interest. Second, if the parent has not filed the Certification of Dependency form with the Office of the Registrar, the parent is not entitled to this information.
In post-secondary institutions, the student "owns" his/her educational record from the first enrollment. This has nothing to do with age of the student.