Records can be shown to school officials for legitimate educational purposes. For the purposes of this policy, legitimate educational purposes are those which would facilitate the official in delivering service to the student.
The college will annually notify the student of certain of their rights with the College Catalog (available free of charge and on the College’s website). If the student objects to the release of such information he/she must notify the Registrar of his/her objection to directory information release within two weeks of the annual notification.
Records may be disclosed to college officials of a college in which the student seeks to enroll. The student/parent
For the purposes of this section, student/parent refers to the independent student or the parent of a student under age 18 or over 18 who is still a dependent must be presented with a copy of the records if requested.
Records may be disclosed to certain federal and state officials acting within their functions in connection with financial aid requests, to testing agencies to administer and validate their tests and to accrediting institutions, in compliance with a court order, and in health and safety emergencies.
All confidential information shall be disclosed only on a need-to-know basis. That is, an official requesting information must have a legitimate need to have the requested information for the effective function of the position or office. Determinations as to whether the need to know requirement has been satisfied shall be made by the head administrator of the area retaining the information. Existing policies and procedure adequately cover these circumstances.
A request for copies of the record will be denied when the student/parent can effectively review the records without copies.
No student/parent will be required by the college to waive any rights but may be requested to do so.
Exemptions to the access of student record files and data are the following. Students may be denied access to notes and observations kept by counselors, staff and faculty members for their personal use and not for the use of an outside agency or other persons or offices in the college, to psychologists’ and psychiatrists’ records, etc. which are kept confidential and employment records, so long as employment is not part of the student status. (If the records serve as client-professional practitioner relationship, the student shall have access only through the practitioner. Release or disclosure of these records shall be governed by state statute and codes of professional ethics.) Students may be denied access to disciplinary records which relate to the student as an individual or citizen. (A file on any incident may contain several names including both students and non-students. In Michigan such records are not accessible to the individual until a complaint has been signed and a warrant issued.) In addition to the above, students shall not have access to letters of recommendation or statements of evaluation obtained or prepared before January 1, 1975, pursuant to implied or expressed promises of the confidentiality or personally signed letters of recommendation to which students have waived their right to access. A student may be allowed, but not required, to waive his or her right of access to letters of recommendation received after that date. Further, students do not have access to the Parent’s Confidential Statement contained in their financial aid folder as this is deemed a record of the parent, not the student.
A student shall be entitled to an explanation of any information contained in official records, files, and data directly related to the student. The student/parent may request a change. If denied the change, the student/parent shall be notified of the right to a hearing to challenge the content of such records to ensure that the record is not inaccurate or misleading, or otherwise in violation of privacy or other rights of the student. (The substantive judgment of a faculty member about a student’s work, expressed in grades assigned in a course and other evaluations of a student’s work, is not within the scope of such hearings.) Hearings shall be limited to the factual accuracy of the record. The hearing official will be designated by the College President and shall have no direct interest in the outcome. Should the student/parent challenge any of the contents of the student’s records on the grounds indicated.