The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) and subsequent amendments require an institutional policy governing access to and overall security for student educational records, to be published annually. The Union is to administer and secure the confidentiality of educational records for all students in attendance. A student in attendance is defined to be a person actively enrolled in a degree or certificate program or is otherwise taking a course for credit during a given academic year. The Union accords all the rights under the law to its students, as defined.
At its discretion, the Union may provide directory information, in accordance with the provisions of the law, which may include: name, address, telephone number, electronic address, date and place of birth, major field of study, dates of attendance, degrees and awards received, the most recent previous educational institution attended, photograph(s) and participation in officially recognized activities.
A student may withhold directory information by submitting to the Registrar a Privacy Request Form 
(97 KB) not later than the second week of a semester within a given academic year. This request for non-disclosure will be honored by the Union for the duration specified unless the student submits a Privacy Request Form (97 KB) to the Registrar to remove the restriction.
Otherwise, the Union will not disclose any information from a student's records without the written consent of the student except to designated personnel within the Union, to officials of other institutions in which a student seeks to enroll, to persons or organizations providing student financial aid, to accrediting agencies carrying out their accreditation function, to persons in compliance with a judicial order, and to authorized personnel in an emergency in order to protect the health or safety of a student or other person.
Within the Union, school officials, individually or collectively acting in the student's educational and financial interest and having legitimate educational interest, are allowed access to student records without the student's permission. Officials are administrators, staff, faculty, persons contracted by the Union (e.g. legal, audit and collections), and officially designated students serving in an official or support capacity.
A student has a right to inspect and review information contained in their records, not otherwise secured. They also have a right to challenge the contents of their file, to have a hearing if the outcome of the challenge is unsatisfactory and to submit explanatory statements for inclusion in their files if the decisions of the hearing panel are unacceptable. A student who wishes to review personal records must make a written request to the Registrar listing the items of interest. Only records covered by the law will be made available within forty-five (45) days of the request. A student may have copies made of their records with certain caveats. Due to the legal sensitivity of this requirement, e-mail requests from the student will not be accepted; the request must be one signed by the student.
The Registrar has been designated to coordinate the inspection and review procedures for student records that include admissions, personal, academic, financial and placement information. These student records will be secured in appropriate containers and storage locations to protect against theft, damage, destruction or other loss in accordance with the institutional policy on records management. The policy is maintained by the Registrar and is on file in the Registrar's Office.
Complaints concerning the Union's failure to comply with FERPA requirements may be addressed to the Family Policy Compliance Office, US Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20202-4605
May 2007