At N.C. State, long standing FERPA is working to protect students in multiple ways.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act is a federal law that guards students’ personal information as well as any release of his or her educational records while at school.
Louis Hunt, vice provost and University registrar, said the University informs students every year about how they can keep their information safe, and private.
”We want students to be informed about their rights while they are at the University. We send them information about how they can restrict access to their personal information through email at the beginning of every semester”, Hunt said.
Student can regulate what information can be viewed by others by configuring the appropriate settings from their MyPack Portal account. Access to some of the personally identifiable information that can be regulated by students includes their contact information like their phone number, address etc.
As far as academic information is concerned, such as grades, assignment submissions and projects, among others, Hunt said that such information is strictly protected under FERPA and can not be released without the student’s permission.
“A student’s academic information can not, and is not, released in any case, except in some special cases when they arise, such as court orders,” Hunt said.
A growing concern with student privacy is online privacy, and this is also addressed by FERPA.
Electronic assignment submissions on websites such as Moodle, and student email accounts are also covered by the law and are protected.
Clifton Williams, University records officer at the University’s Office of General Counsel, said that while state laws require faculty and administration emails to be in the domain of public records, FERPA is a federal law that protects student rights and information.
“Students have a lot of rights on campus regarding their information. They can view it, prohibit University disclosures and there is also a mechanism to change it,” Williams said.
FERPA requires that no personally identifiable information about a student be released.
However, if the content contains no such information, Williams says that the University can release it without consent.
Williams said that there are three main reasons why it is important to protect such information about students.
“It is not advisable to release such information keeping in mind the students’ age and the possibility of identity theft. Also, the University has a responsibility to protect this information, so that is why it is not released,” Williams said.
Students who are employed by the University in their capacity as students are treated the same as students who are not necessarily employees. Explaining the need behind this, Williams said that students even if they are employed on campus, at a paid position, are not treated as public employees, and so their information can not be made public.
“If the job you’re performing requires you to be a student, then your information is protected,” Williams said. “For example, for Student Government members, even though they receive payment, the key word to remember here is Student. They are able to do that only because they are students at the University.”