The newspaper stated that it doesn't even know if records of this kind even exist. The stated purpose of the records request is to hold the university accountable for investigating and punishing campus rape. That seems like a legitimate reason to withhold records, right? To protect the innocent.īut let's remember-the newspaper only requested the records of the proceedings in which the accused was found responsible for wrongdoing. On the one hand, the university has declared it must use FERPA to protect assault victims and witnesses, and therefore it cannot release the records of assault proceedings. Let's take a look at the issues at play here. (This request was joined by other media organizations.) In response to the public records request, the university's vice chancellor of communications stated that “UNC is firmly committed to FERPA regulations” and that “Carolina has a profound responsibility to protect and vigorously defend the privacy of sexual assault victims and all students, including witnesses, who may be involved in a campus Title IX process.” In response to UNC's refusal to release the records, the newspaper filed an official public records request under North Carolina law. According to the paper, “The request specifically asked for all records of people found responsible for rape, sexual assault or misconduct by University entities.” The university refused to meet the request, citing FERPA. In September 2016, the campus newspaper of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The Daily Tar Heel, formally requested specific records relating to campus sexual assault cases. Unfortunately, this unethical information-blocking also often arises in the context of campus rape. Schools also use FERPA as a way to unethically block access to information that is strongly in the public interest-and, incidentally, not protected by FERPA.
This story shows a particular dark side to FERPA: how a school could use FERPA as a tool for gaining access to information about students that it did not have a right to have and as a tool to acquire information in an unethical manner.īut there is yet another dark side to FERPA, one that seems antithetical to the unethical acquiring of information. Department of Education issued new FERPA guidelines for how schools should handle medical records, giving medical records greater protection against university overreach. As a consequence of the school's unethical action and the ensuing fallout, the U.S. The school pulled her records to prepare for a lawsuit that the school believed the rape victim was going to file. In last month's column, I wrote about how one university used the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) to legally, but unethically, access a rape victim's campus medical records.
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