Directory Information

Under FERPA, students enrolled in post-secondary educational institutions are deemed to ‘own’ their education records. These records should be treated as confidential unless prior, written, student consent has been given or disclosure falls under a permissible FERPA exception.
 
A common FERPA exception includes release of directory information unless explicitly prohibited by the student. FERPA allows students to restrict the release of their information, including that designated by their institution as ‘directory’. Currently enrolled students may prevent the release of any of their directory information by going to https://howdy.tamu.edu and clicking on the “My Information” icon to do so.
 
Practical Implications

Students can place or remove directory holds at any time, so when working with or disclosing directory information, it is important to regularly re-check student preferences for maintaining their directory information. Before disclosing any information falling under the directory information umbrella, school officials must ensure that the individual student hasn’t withheld the release of that information.
 
School officials can review items withheld from release in a variety of ways.
 
Within COMPASS, these individual items are viewable on the COMPASS form SWAINFO (review the ‘Student’, not ‘Applicant’ tab). Students with directory restrictions will initially display a pop-up noting their information is confidential (see below) and the term ‘Confidential’ will appear on the top of each COMPASS screen displaying their information.
 

 
Within Howdy, selections related to withholding directory information are available in multiple places. One opportunity to review this information is on the Class Roster within the ‘Faculty/Teaching’ tab. Students choosing to withhold directory information will appear on the class rosters with ‘(Confidential)’ appearing next to their name. Clicking on the hyperlinked ‘(Confidential)’ will allow viewing of items restricted from release. This information is also available on the ‘Howdy Dashboard’ tab once the student is selected. A lock icon, along with ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ will appear (see below) immediately beneath the student name, UIN, and email address in the top banner.
 

 
For additional FERPA information, be sure to review the Office of the Registrar site for FERPA.
 
An additional training is now available for university personnel on FERPA: Implications for Faculty, Staff & Advisors (TrainTraq #2114557). The current schedule is available within TrainTraq by searching either the course title or number. Individuals within the Office of the Registrar are available to participate in FERPA presentations and/or question and answer sessions for any department or college faculty or staff meeting. To schedule, please call 979-845-1711 or submit a request to ferpa@tamu.edu.
 
If you have a topic that you are interested in being explored in a future Friday Fun with FERPA, please email ferpa@tamu.edu. Alternatively, you can submit an anonymous form with topic ideas HERE.