FAMILY RIGHTS AND PRIVACY ACT

In accordance with the provisions of the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (Section 438 of the General Education Provisions Act, 20. USC 1232g, commonly referred to as the “Buckley Amendment”), Suffolk University has adopted the regulations shown below to protect the privacy rights to its students.

Disclosure of Information From Records

Suffolk University shall consider as “DIRECTORY INFORMATION” subject to public disclosure the following items: name, email address, enrollment status, dates of attendance, major, minor, degrees, graduation honors, academic honors, awards received and graduation date. All other student information will not be released to students, parents, or outside agencies unless accompanied by a written release of information from the student.

Students may request that “directory” information not be released to any person by completing a ‘REQUEST TO PREVENT DISCLOSURE OF DIRECTORY INFORMATION” form available in the Registrar’s Office.

Education records are defined as records directly related to a student and maintained by the institution or by a party acting for the institution. No office maintaining an education record of a student will disclose any non-directory information from that record to anyone other than the student himself/herself without the written consent of the student, except as provided below.

1) The records of the students will be disclosed without his/her written consent to any academic and administrative offices within the University who have a legitimate educational interest in the information. “Legitimate educational interest” means the demonstrated need to know by those persons who act in the student’s educational interest. A school official is determined to have legitimate educational interest if the information requested is necessary for that official to (a) perform appropriate tasks that are specified in his or her job description or by a contract agreement; (b) perform a task related to a students’ education; (c) perform a task related to the discipline of a student; (d) provide a service or benefit relating to the student or student’s family such as counseling, job placement, or financial aid. A school official is defined as a person employed by the institution in an administrative, supervisory, academic or research, or support staff position; a person serving on an institutional governing body; a person employed by or under contract to the institution to perform a special task; a person or organization acting as an official of the institution in performing a business function or service on behalf of the institution (the function or service must be one that the institution normally would perform itself); a student assisting another school official in fulfilling his or her professional responsibilities.

2) The records of a student will be disclosed without his/her written consent to those federal and state government agencies and officials provided by law.

3) The records of a student will be disclosed without his/her written consent to any agency to which the student has applied for or from which he has received financial aid, or which has made decisions concerning eligibility, amount, conditions, or enforcement of terms of such aid.

4) The records of a student will be disclosed without his/her written consent to certain educational agencies and institutions, as permitted by the law.

5) The University reserves the right to furnish to parent(s) or guardian(s) of financially dependent students any information relating to academic status.

6) The records of a student will be disclosed without his/her written consent to comply with a judicial order or subpoena.

7) The records of a student will be disclosed without his/her written consent in a health or safety emergency, as provided by the law.