The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal statute passed into law in 1974 that provides the basis for dealing with student information at post-secondary educational institutions. Our compliance with FERPA regulations ensure a minimum standard for the access to, the use of, and the release of information from education records. Please be aware however, many records we maintain about students, such as medical and disciplinary records, are subject to further protection through other federal (HIPPA, GLB) and state legislation (Public Record Laws, Freedom of Information Acts).

Almost all information maintained about our students is contained in education records. Failure to strictly comply with FERPA regulations is a violation of federal law. It would ostracize Furman from the rest of the higher education community, damage our reputation, and could ultimately jeopardize any monies we receive either directly or indirectly from the federal government, including student financial aid. At this time, the student information release policy at Furman complies with all provisions of the Act and its subsequent regulations.

Student information release rights begin the moment a person enrolls at Furman and extend until the day they die. For our purposes, we interpret “enroll” as the time at which a person first registers for a course. Student information release rights are extended to all students regardless of age. As the title implies, the student, and that student alone, is the only person with release rights to his or her records.

Students have the right to inspect their records and to challenge anything in them that they perceive to be inaccurate or misleading. The university must provide reasonable accommodations to accomplish these tasks. The office or person who creates and maintains the record in question is identified as the records’ custodian and is responsible for determining what is reasonable.

FERPA regulations also stipulate that Furman must protect all information in a student’s education records from being disclosed to anyone but the student… without the student’s written consent.

Of course there are exceptions, but the only lawful exceptions you are likely to encounter include:

• School officials with a legitimate educational interest may review a student’s records without the student’s consent if they need to consult the records to fulfill their professional responsibilities.
• School officials may release personally identifiable information from the education record in an effort to comply with a lawfully issued subpoena or other court order after first notifying the student.
• School officials may release any and all pertinent information to address an immediate threat to the health or safety of the student or others.

Public information is information that can be released to a third party without the expressed written consent of the student. A student can, if they choose, inform us in writing that this type of information should not be released.

Public information at Furman includes:

• student​​ name,
• names of parents or spouse,
• local address and telephone number,
• home address and telephone number,
• e‐mail address,
• date and place of birth,
• field of study,
• class year,
• participation in officially recognized activities or sports,
• height and weight of members of athletic teams,
• dates of attendance,
• most recent educational institution attended,
• any degree, honors, or awards received,
• identification photograph, and
• enrollment status (full‐time, part‐time, undergraduate, graduate)​

Students may elect to withhold the release of public information in Workday. Absolutely no information can be released about students who make this type of request without their written consent. The request must be renewed annually; the student can rescind their request with similar update to their record.

Furman University allows public information to be released if the student does not object, but we are not legally bound to disclose any information of this type. Please err on the side of safety. If you are at all uncomfortable with a request for information do not provide it; questions about what you can or cannot disclose within the parameters of public information should be directed to Enrollment Services. If you are at all uncomfortable with a request for information do not provide it; questions about what you can or cannot disclose within the parameters of public information should be directed to Enrollment Services.

Again, student information release rights are held by the student and no one else. Furman can and chooses, but is in no way obligated, to share selected information about a student… beyond what is considered public information… with their parents. In order to comply with FERPA regulations however, one of the following statements must be true:

• we have written permission from the student, or
• the parents can provide proof that the student is financially dependent on them.

As we inform incoming students of their student information release rights, we ask them to give Furman permission to share information we deem appropriate, such as course grades and financial information, with their parents. If a student refuses to grant us permission to do so, we will avail ourselves of any information that proves financial dependency. Finally, any information shared with one parent can be disclosed to both unless you are notified by the university to the contrary. Please notify Enrollment Services immediately if you are unsure of a family situation which may impact the release of information.

The telephone is a less than perfect way to share student information. Sometimes though, it is the only viable alternative. Take steps to positively identify the caller before you release personally identifiable information of any type. Whenever possible, put yourself in a position to confirm information that has already been accessed rather than provide for its outright release. Above all, use your professional judgment; we want to limit the amount of frustration experienced by our legitimate callers while we ensure that our students’ rights are not violated.

Most forms of e-mail suffer from the same concerns we have about releasing information via the telephone… we don’t really know who is on the other side of the communication. Again, take steps to positively identify the recipient before releasing any type of information.

As you have surely guessed by now, the implementation of our student information release policy can become quite complicated. This brief review should give you enough wisdom to function effectively on a routine basis, but is by no means comprehensive. More details about handling student information, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, and Furman’s attempts to comply with its provisions are available from the Enrollment Services. You can contact us via telephone at (864) 294-2030, e-mail us at enroll@furman.edu, or stop by our offices in the Administration Building, Room 4. Please ask questions when they arise and remember… better safe than sorry.