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The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) affords students certain rights with respect to their education records. Murray State University may only release “directory information” on a student. MSU has defined directory information as:
- Student’s name
- Addresses & phone listings
- Campus email address
- Date and place of birth
- Fields of study
- Participation in officially recognized activities and sports
- Weight and height of members of athletic teams
- Dates of attendance
- Enrollment status (including full-time, part-time, not enrolled)
- Degrees (pending and awarded)
- Awards or honors received
- Most recent previous educational institution attended
Students may allow a staff or faculty member of MSU to release confidential information (i.e. information not found in the directory information list) by completing an online form. This online release is a “consent to release student information.”
Students have the option to release all their confidential information or only certain types of confidential information (financial aid, billing/account, academic/education, disciplinary/student conduct information). They also may choose who it can be released to. In order to give consent, a student must provide a signed release in myGate (Academics tab) with a security question and answer. Releases remain active until the student revokes his/her consent.
How can I, as an MSU employee, use this information?
If a student or his/her family member contacts you via phone or email asking about confidential information, you cannot discuss it before completing the following steps:
(1) Search for the student on the Teaching/Advising tab.
(2) Check to see if the student has a green “yes” next to ‘Info. Release Consent’.
(3) Verify the student is allowing you to release the information being requested (if asking about grades, the student must have the statement “authorizing … academic…”; if asking about financial aid, the student must have the statement “authorizing billing…”, etc.).
(4) Verify the person requesting the information is on the authorized list.
(5) Ask the requestor the security question. DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY HINTS TO THE ANSWER.
(6) Verify the requestor gave the correct answer. THEY MUST ANSWER THE QUESTION CORRECTLY THE FIRST TIME. If they don’t answer the question correctly, respond with “I’m sorry but I am not permitted to release confidential information about this person.”
(7) You or the requestor can always contact the Office of the Registrar for clarification.
Remember – if a student is marked as “confidential” in Banner, class rosters, or on student search, NO information (including directory information) may be released on that student.
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