Privacy Guidelines for Faculty and Staff

All faculty and staff are required to complete FERPA Training. The information below supplements and acts as a quick reference only.

Good practice by faculty and staff members requires that they maintain, report and make available information included in student educational records in compliance with the requirements of FERPA and the University's Policy.

1. Do refer requests for information from the educational record of a student to Office of the Registrar.
2. Do keep only those individual student records necessary for the fulfillment of your teaching or advising responsibilities. Private notes of a professor/staff member concerning a student and intended for professor's/staff member's own use are not part of the student's educational record.
3. Do keep any personal professional records relating to individual students separate from their educational records. Private records of instructional, supervisory and administrative personnel and ancillary educational personnel are to be kept in the sole possession of the maker and are not to be accessible or revealed to any other person, except a substitute.
4. Do change factual information regarding grades and performance in an educational record when the student is able to provide valid documentation that information is inaccurate or misleading. The substantive judgment of a faculty member about a student's work, expressed in grades and/or evaluations, is not within the purview of a student's right to challenge their educational records.
5. Do Not display student scores or grades publicly in association with names, social security numbers or other personal identifiers. If scores or grades are posted, use only the last four digits of the student number arranged numerically or some other code known only to you and the individual student.
6. Do Not put papers or lab reports containing student names and grades in publicly accessible places. Students are not to have access to the scores and grades of others in the class.
7. Do Not request information from the educational record custodian without a legitimate educational interest and the appropriate authority to do so.
8. Do Not share student educational record information, including grades or grade point averages, with other faculty or staff members of the University unless their official responsibilities identify their "legitimate educational interest" in that information for that student.
9. Do Not share by phone or correspondence information from student educational records, including grades or grade point averages, with parents or others outside the institution, including letters of recommendation, without written permission from the student.
10. Do Not include in a student's educational records or make available to him/her, or to a third party, information from medical, psychiatric, or psychological reports; records from law enforcement officials on or off the campus; or notes of a professional or staff person which are intended for that individual alone.