The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (aka FERPA, aka Buckley Amendment) was enacted to provide students with a way to protect the privacy of their educational records. In general, FERPA stipulates that non-directory information in student records must be kept confidential, establishes students’ right to review their educational records and petition for corrections to information they believe is inaccurate or misleading, and requires that WU provide a mechanism for students to block the release of their directory information.
With a few exceptions, releasing personally identifiable information from a student’s educational record to anyone other than WU employees with ‘legitimate educational interests’ requires the student’s written permission. Some information in a student’s educational record is defined as directory information and may be disclosed without a student’s written consent unless the student has requested that it be kept confidential.
See the WU Office of Student Records FERPA policy for more details and a list of directory information.
Reporting database users can tell if a student has chosen to block release of their directory information by using the htv_information_holds or wuv_information_holds views.
If RlseName = N, the student has blocked the release of all directory information including their name and the fact that they are a WU student or former student. If RlseOther = N, the student has blocked all other directory information.
In addition to N, the values for RlseName and RlseOther may include Y, blank, null, or a student may not have a record in the information holds view (think outer join). Only N indicates a block on directory information.