The college abides by the provisions of the Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974. This act ensures a wide range of rights, including, but not limited to: information about students' records that the College maintains, who maintains them, who has access to them, and for what purposes access is granted. The act also permits the college to release "directory information" without a student's consent. Directory information consists of the full name of the student as it appears on the official record; a student's dates of attendance; and a student's degree and honors and the dates they were awarded. In addition, the act guarantees students' access to their records and allows students to restrict such access to others.

It is important to note that the Records Office is more rigorous in protecting the privacy of the student data entrusted it than the law requires.

Family Education Rights and Privacy Act -- Update

Effective February 25, 1993

Section 99.30 is amended by revising the section heading and paragraph (a) to read as follows:

"Under what conditions is prior consent required to disclose information?"
a. The parent or eligible student shall provide a signed and dated written consent before an educational agency or instructional agency or instruction discloses personally identifiable information from the student's records except as provided in 99.31.

"The principle change resulting from these regulations is establishment of another condition under which an institution of postsecondary education may, without prior consent, disclose information from an educational agency or institutional agency or institution to disclose information from a student's educational records if the parent or eligible student has provided written consent to party seeking access to the records, rather than require that the educational agency or institution obtain written consent directly from the parent or eligible student."