Staff studies privacy act

UNM staff members brushed up on the laws of record keeping Thursday.

LeRoy Rooker, an expert on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), headed the workshop in Kiva Lecture Hall to educate UNM staff members on rules and procedures for handling student records lawfully. Rooker is the director of the Family Policy Compliance Office at the U.S. Department of Education.

FERPA is a federal law that safeguards students' personal information recorded in school documents. This information can be anything from a student's social security number to medical and financial information.

Any student 18 or older may rightfully review and inspect his or her educational records maintained by the school. A student's educational records cannot be disclosed to a third party without written consent. Exceptions include compliance with a judicial order or a lawfully issued subpoena and disclosure to school officials with "legitimate educational interests."

The disclosure of other information, including a student's name, address and listed phone number, does not require the student's signed consent.

UNM Registrar Kathleen Sena said UNM is in full compliance with FERPA. The staff in the Registrar's Office attends monthly FERPA workshops to stay familiar with the act's numerous rules and procedures, and to stay updated on changes to the law.

She said UNM policy requires any staff member who requests student records to attend a monthly workshop.

Admissions Officer Russell Morris said the workshop was well organized and helpful. He stressed the importance of frequent FERPA training to avoid what would otherwise be routine hassles in the admissions office.

"It is vital that everyone who has access to student records is trained consistently on FERPA," he said.

Morris said one reason the UNM admissions office has avoided FERPA-related problems is because his coworkers regularly attend the workshops.

Rooker also briefed the staff on FERPA's regulations regarding the use of personal identification numbers, which are used to remotely access student accounts. He said students' ID and PIN numbers must be encrypted and inaccessible to anyone but the student to whom they apply.

Sena said switching from UNM's online ID and PIN system, which requires students to use their social security numbers to process transactions, to a more secure electronic signature method is under consideration.

She said the electronic signature method of verification is widely favored for its security advantages.

"The University is, of course, very seriously looking at converting from using our social security numbers to using an alternate ID number," she said. "We're not required to do it, but we'll certainly look at it from a student-service perspective. And as we implement the new student services system through project LINK we may be making some changes."

LINK, which stands for Linking Information Networks and Knowledge, is a five-year project to restructure UNM's administrative and business systems that manage data ranging from student financial aid to UNM's human resources department.

Project LINK officials say it will make those systems more efficient and accessible.

Sena said Project LINK's first component, business and finance, would be activated this fall.

The FERPA workshop was sponsored by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.