FERPA hurts, not helps, students
By Editorial
When the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act was enacted, its goal was to prevent outsiders from viewing students' educational records.
But a closer observation reveals that the true intent of FERPA was to prevent parents -- often the bankrollers of an expensive, private education -- from viewing their child's grades.
Such a denial of access brings consequences. University administrators, both at Santa Clara and elsewhere, contend that the phrase "educational records" can become a catchall for any record, academic or otherwise, that affects a student. The most obvious example involves judicial records or crime, which the university frequently adjudicates in-house.
Denial to records
In the course of its reporting this year, this newspaper has often been denied (in the name of FERPA) details of students' involvement in potentially serious crimes. As a result, The Santa Clara's reporting staff has had to turn elsewhere -- mainly to Santa Clara police and county court files -- to get the answers it needs.
Many times, FERPA's barrier to information access doesn't hurt our reporting efforts. But for the times the university has chosen to handle that pesky alcohol violation or assault in-house, we're simply left to wonder what really happened.
The Santa Clara is not alone in being denied access to information. In the name of student privacy, countless college newspapers nationwide, both at private and public schools, can't get the information they need to do proper reporting.
At the University of Arizona, for example, the Arizona Daily Wildcat tried unsuccessfully to gain access to e-mail messages from the student government president, considered a public figure, over sexual harassment allegations. University administrators pegged FERPA as their reason behind their denial of the Wildcat's request for records. But the issue had nothing to do with the original protections FERPA offered. The paper said it might pursue legal options.
What we don't know
FERPA itself is not 100 percent to blame, however, for leaving this community in the dark about many potential crimes committed by students. In some instances, when a student is accused of a forcible sexual offense, FERPA does not apply.
But, conversely, that doesn't require Santa Clara to release those records. On at least one occasion, this newspaper requested similar records and was turned down by the Office of Student Life. In defense of its decision, one student life official said the university could voluntarily give over those records, but chose not to.
Certain students and administrators argue that the press has no right to access the private records of students. After all, critics contest, college students make mistakes, and it's the university's job to dole out "educational sanctions," not punishment, to correct offenders' behavior.
But in the process, some statistics may be left out from what the university reports. We're not alleging impropriety on the part of university officials. But just because a student is exonerated in a university "hearing" doesn't mean he or she isn't responsible. The university's "judicial" system is a far cry from fair arbitration at the public courthouse, and even that isn't perfect.
The bottom line
Access to information is essential for free societies. And that includes a small community like Santa Clara's. If a student breaks the rules, then he or she should be held accountable, and the community should know about it. Sexually assaulting someone at a Friday-night party is hardly a matter of privacy.
Like it or not, students should face the fact that their behavior has consequences, even if that means those consequences become part of the public record. Each time FERPA empowers university officials to wrap potential lawbreaking in a cocoon on the second floor of Benson, the community is left without vital information. We cannot always rely on the university to tell us the scope of student crime, especially when it has an image to hold up.