The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 was enacted to protect the privacy of educational records, to establish the right of student to inspect and review their educational records, and to provide guidelines for the correction of inaccurate or misleading data through informal and formal hearings. The federal law includes provisions for disclosure of Directory Information by educational institutions. River Valley Community College considers the following to be Directory Information: Student’s name, address, telephone number, CCSNH email, date of birth, major field of study, dates of attendance, degrees, awards, honors and most recent educational institution attended.
If you do not wish disclosure of any or all of the categories of identifiable directory information, you must submit a Prevent Disclosure of Directory Information form.
Directory Information/Non-Disclosure: If you chose to withhold “Directory Information”, any future requests for such information from non-institutional persons or organizations will be refused, except as provided by law. The College will honor your request to withhold general Directory Information but will assume no responsibility to get permission to release information in the future or assume any liability regardless of the effect upon you by withholding this information. Students have the right to review the entire contents of any of their records at the College. Students will be given access to their own record if possible at any time between 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The only person authorized to release this information is the Vice President of Academic & Student Affairs. *Students wishing access to their records must contact the Vice President of Academic & Student Affairs personally. In cases involving the possibility of misinterpretation of data, the Vice President of Academic & Student Affairs shall interpret the data to the student.
Students shall have the opportunity for a hearing to challenge the content of their college records to insure that they are not inaccurate, misleading, or in violation of their privacy or rights. This type of challenge must be made in writing to the Vice President of Academic & Student Affairs.
*(With the single exception that letters of recommendation submitted on the basis of a pledge of confidentiality prior to January 1, 1975, will not be shown to students.)
No access to or release of any personally identifiable records or files of students will be allowed to any individual, agency or organization without the prior written consent of the student except as follows: the President, Vice President of Academic & Student Affairs, Registrar and their respective staffs, shall have unlimited access without permission to all student records.
They cannot, however, release any information without prior written authorization from the student except as follows:
- to officials and teachers within the College who are directly involved in a legitimate educational manner with the student;
- to authorized Federal and State officers as identified in Section 438 (b) (3) of Public Law 93-380;
- to appropriate persons in connection with an emergency if the knowledge of such information is necessary to protect the health or safety of any person.
Copies of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, Part 99, dealing with Privacy Rights of Students, may be obtained from the Vice President of Academic & Student Affairs.