Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 42

M

ore than a half a
century ago, the
United States
Congress passed
a law known as
the Family Educational Rights and
Privacy Act (FERPA) in order to make
sure that students' education records
couldn't be given cavalierly to anybody
who asked for them.

FERPA is not a major issue in the
day-to-day running of most colleges
and universities. But when there is an
event - such as a suicide or a school
shooting or a sexual harassment
case where questions arise about
who was told what when - FERPA
will suddenly be in the news. This
came to light in the most tragic of
ways after the horrific shooting at

It was 1974, and a nation,
traumatized by President Richard
Nixon and the Watergate scandal,
had great distrust of governments
and institutions. FERPA addressed
real concerns about the lack of
access students and parents had to
educational records and the casual
way such records - including grades,
teachers' comments, and psychological
assessments - could be shared
with anyone. The focus of the law
was primarily on elementary and
secondary schools, and "the inclusion
of higher education was somewhat of
an after thought," wrote the authors
of "Revisiting the Purpose and Effect
of FERPA." Think, they said, "how
different our lives would be if higher
education had not been included in the
provisions."

FERPA ADDRESSED
REAL CONCERNS
ABOUT
FERPA THE
LACK
OF ACCESS
ADDRESSED
STUDENTS
AND
REAL CONCERNS
PARENTS
HAD TO
ABOUT THE
EDUCATIONAL
LACK OF ACCESS
RECORDS AND
STUDENTS AND
THE CASUAL WAY
PARENTS HAD TO
SUCH RECORDS
EDUCATIONAL
- INCLUDING
RECORDS AND
GRADES,
THE CASUAL WAY
TEACHERS'
SUCH RECORDS
COMMENTS,
AND
-INCLUDING
PSYCHOLOGICAL
GRADES,
ASSESSMENTS
-
TEACHERS'
COULD
BE SHARED
COMMENTS,
AND
WITH
ANYONE.

Indeed.
In the ensuing decades, much has
changed in society, including the typical
parent-child relationship, leading some
higher education administrators to
wonder whether the law has outlived its
usefulness. "I think the underpinnings
and motivations for the law are sound,"
says Jacob Rooksby, dean of the
School of Law at Gonzaga University
in Spokane, Washington. "We're
finding there continues to be a lot of
misunderstanding on how to apply it in
a given context, and, in some instances,
it can be used as a smokescreen for
universities to withhold information
that they don't want to share."

42

TALKING STICK

PSYCHOLOGICAL
ASSESSMENTS-COULD BE
SHARED WITH
ANYONE.

Virginia Tech in 2007, when SeungHui Cho, a student, killed 32 people
and then committed suicide. It later
emerged that numerous people at
the university were aware of Cho's
mental instability but did not share
the information with each other. In
the investigations after the shooting,
questions were raised about whether
FERPA prevented the university from
exchanging information about Cho
among themselves and to outside
parties. At the time, Department of
Education (DOE) officials said FERPA
was never intended to and did not, in
fact, prevent such disclosures.
In 2009, the DOE revised the
law to clarify the responsibility that
university officials have to divulge
such information to parents, police,
and health officials if they fear the
student is a danger to himself or
others. Nonetheless, controversy has
continued to swirl around the issue;
one of the most recent to become
front-page news occurred at Hamilton
College in New York this spring, when
a student, Graham Burton, hanged
himself in his residence hall room. It
was later revealed that a number of
people at Hamilton knew of Burton's
distress but did not disclose it to his
parents. According to an article in The
New York Times, "More than a month
before his death, his adviser, Maurice
Isserman, wrote the academic dean
the strongest of many warnings:
'Obviously what's happening here is
a complete crash and burn. I don't
know what the procedures/rules are
for contacting parents but if this was
my kid, I'd want to know.'" Hamilton
officials have declined to talk about
the case but did cite the constraints
of FERPA at a school assembly, when
students asked about Burton's parents'
concerns that they had not been
told about their son's psychological
difficulties, according to the Times.



Talking Stick - January/February 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Talking Stick - January/February 2019

Talking Stick - January/February 2019
Vision
Just In
Calendar
Your ACUHO-I
Transitions
Res Life
Academic Initiatives
Special Focus
Underlying Expectations
Private Matters
Conversations
First Takes
Around Student Affairs
New Members
Snapshot
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - Intro
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - BB1
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - BB2
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - Talking Stick - January/February 2019
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - Cover2
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 1
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 2
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 3
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 4
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 5
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 6
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 7
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - Vision
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 9
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - Just In
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 11
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 12
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 13
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 14
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 15
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 16
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 17
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - Calendar
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - Your ACUHO-I
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - Transitions
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 21
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - Res Life
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 23
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 24
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 25
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - Academic Initiatives
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 27
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 28
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 29
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - Special Focus
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 31
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 32
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 33
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - Underlying Expectations
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 35
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 36
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 37
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 38
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 39
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - Private Matters
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 41
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 42
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 43
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 44
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 45
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 46
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 47
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - Conversations
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 49
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 50
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 51
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - First Takes
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - Around Student Affairs
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 54
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - New Members
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - Snapshot
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - Cover3
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - Cover4
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - CCover1
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - CCover2
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C1
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C2
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C3
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C4
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C5
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C6
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C7
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C8
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C9
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C10
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C11
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C12
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C13
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C14
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C15
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C16
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C17
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C18
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C19
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C20
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C21
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C22
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C23
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C24
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C25
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C26
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C27
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C28
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C29
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C30
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C31
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - C32
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 95
Talking Stick - January/February 2019 - 96
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