[1]  SEC. 207 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Restrictions on over-the-air reception devices.

Within 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Commission shall, pursuant to section 303 of the Communications Act of 1934, promulgate regulations to prohibit restrictions that impair a viewer's ability to receive video programming services through devices designed for over-the-air reception of television broadcast signals, multichannel multipoint distribution service, or direct broadcast satellite services

[2]  Text of footnote 73: In the current record, we decline to extend the protections of our Section 207 rules to college dormitories.  Purdue University argues that college housing is unique and, as such, should be exempt from our rules. Purdue Comments at 4.  No one responded to Purdue's comments, and because no one has shown that a university has the same relationship to a dormitory resident as a landlord to a tenant, that a dormitory room is a leasehold, that landlord-tenant law applies equally to dormitories, or that the practical problems associated with extending our rules to leaseholds can be similarly resolved with respect to dormitories, we have no basis to cover college dormitories by our Section 207 rules at this time.  Where, however, the relationship between a university and a viewer bears sufficient attributes of a commercial landlord-tenant relationship (e.g., where a university leases a single family home to a

faculty member), our Section 207 rules will apply."

 

 

When a Student Places a “Hold” on Directory Information

 

I can’t even say a student is here?!?

 

Introduction

 

Can a Professor confirm to an inquirer that a student in her class is in attendance at the university?  You might be surprised to learn that in some cases the answer is, “No.” 

 

There are many questions that are becoming more common as students express concerns over their privacy, both in the real world and in cyberspace, and exercise their student privacy rights under federal law.  What steps does one need to take before posting an honor or award that a student receives on the Department or School web page, or even before forwarding that information to CUA’s Office of Public Affairs?  What if a parent calls and wants all traces of a student’s presence at the university removed from the CUA web page?  The answers to these and similar questions are determined at least in part by FERPA.

 

Definition of “Directory Information”

 

A federal law known as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) sets forth the rules for student record privacy.  A detailed roadmap on how this law is applied at CUA can be found in the CUA student records policy.  This article concerns one of the many exceptions to the law, which is that permission is generally not required for the university to disclose directory information about a student. 

 

Directory information ordinarily means information contained in an education record of a student that would not be considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed.  At CUA this includes the following:  name of student, address (both local, including e-mail address and permanent), telephone number (both local and permanent), date of registered attendance, school or division of enrollment, major field of study, nature and dates of degrees and awards received, participation in officially recognized activities and sports, and weight and height of members of athletic teams.

 

Note that Social Security Numbers (SSN) and student ID numbers (even if they are not SSNs) are not considered directory information and therefore cannot be released except under very narrow circumstances.

 

So what is, “Placing a hold on directory information”?

The FERPA regulations allow CUA to disclose directory information to third parties without consent from a student, so long as the school has given public notice of the types of information which it has designated as directory information.  The law also requires notice to the student of his/her right to restrict the disclosure of such information.  At CUA this notice is delivered in several ways:

 

• On the main registration screen in Cardinal Student
• On the Home.cua.edu web page phone directory
• In the paper copy of the Class Schedule

 

A student who completes the appropriate form and submits it to the Registrar has the ability to restrict all university release of the Directory Information that might otherwise be freely and publicly available.

 

How can I tell if a student at CUA has placed a hold on release of directory information?

 

There are several ways to ascertain if a hold has been placed. One is to check with a staff member or other person in your School or Department who has access to “Cardinal Students,” the university’s computerized student information database. Another option is to log on to home.cua.edu and access the phone book. If one types in a student’s name and no information appears, then one can pretty safely assume that the student has either placed a hold on release of directory information or is no longer a student at CUA.  Finally, one can always check with the Registrar, the official responsible for tracking such information.

 

What are the implications of a Directory Information “hold”?

 

If  a student has placed a hold on the release of directory information, it can only be accessed/released if a legitimate educational interest exists or one of the other enumerated exceptions in FERPA applies.  In other words, this data must now be treated like a private educational record.  So as our headline suggests, in such a case even a student’s name is confidential and the university cannot divulge whether a student is even in attendance at CUA.

 

Special problems with Emails to students

 

If a Professor publishes a list of all emails of the students in your class, or even sends an email to the entire class on which each recipient is listed in the address line, it violates the policy against “publishing” or making public the email address of any student in that class who may have placed a hold on directory information.  One option for dealing with this is to advise your students that emails will be distributed in class, and ask them to let you know if a hold has been placed on directory information so that you can send to them separately.  Using the “blind cc” function when sending emails to the entire class is also another option.

 

When Good Publicity Goes Bad on Web pages

 

Be aware before posting information in any format, including honors and awards listed in web page information, that a hold on release of directory information means even such good news about a student cannot be posted without the student’s written permission. Once the information in posted on the web, even if it is taken off the CUA web server, it is cached on the google.com server for another 30 days.  In addition, there are web sites (such as “the way back machine”) that archive web pages, making it very difficult or even impossible to remove information from the web once it is posted. 

 

If there’s no “hold” on information, must it be disclosed?

 

Even though the law allows disclosure of directory information by the university when no hold has been placed by a student, there is no requirement that it must be disclosed.  There may be instances when disclosure of such information would not serve the best interests of the student or the university.

 

If, for example, an outside vendor wants an email address for all students, be sure to consult with appropriate officials within the school regarding the wisdom of such a release.  FERPA is one consideration in releasing directory information, but not the only consideration.  Questions on the law or university policy can be addressed to either the Registrar or the Office of General Counsel.