Rights and Privacy Related to Education Records (FERPA)

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA of 1974), as amended, affords eligible students certain rights with respect to their education records. (An “eligible student” under FERPA is a student who is 18 years of age or older or who, at any age, attends a postsecondary institution – e.g. a college or university.) Notice of these rights is available in the online Student Handbook and sent to students electronically at the start of each fall semester.

These rights include:

• The right to inspect and review the student's education records within 45 days after the day Mount Holyoke College (hereafter “the College”) receives a request for access. A student should submit to the Dean of Studies a written request that identifies the record(s) the student wishes to inspect. The Dean will make arrangements for access and notify the student of the time and place where the records may be inspected. If the records are not maintained by the school official to whom the request was submitted, that official shall advise the student of the correct official to whom the request should be addressed.
• The right to request the amendment of the student’s education records that the student believes is inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise in violation of the student’s privacy rights under FERPA.
• A student who wishes to ask the College to amend a record should write to the College official responsible for the record, clearly identify the part of the record the student wants changed, and specify why it should be changed.
• If the College decides not to amend the record as requested, a College official will notify the student in writing of the decision and the student’s right to a hearing regarding the request for amendment. Additional information regarding the hearing procedures will be provided to the student when notified of the right to a hearing.
• IMPORTANT: The right to amendment may not be used to contest the appropriateness of a grade in a record, but may be used to assert that the grade actually assigned was inaccurately recorded.
• The right to provide written consent before disclosure of personally identifiable information contained in the student's education records, except to the extent that FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent.  The most common exceptions to FERPA’s consent requirement appear below. The College reserves the right to make disclosures of information from education records without a student’s consent in these and other circumstances in which such disclosures are permitted by FERPA.
  • To school officials with legitimate educational interests. A College official typically has a legitimate educational interest if the official needs to review an education record in order to fulfill their customary responsibilities for the College. Such officials are not permitted to re-disclose personally identifiable information to any unauthorized party. School officials can include:
    • people employed by the College in administrative, supervisory, academic, research, or support staff positions (including law enforcement unit personnel and health staff);
    • people serving on the Board of Trustees; or
    • students, employees, or appointed volunteers serving on an official committee, such as on a disciplinary or grievance committee.
    • volunteers or contractors outside of the College who perform institutional services or functions for which the College would otherwise use its own employees and who are under the direct control of the College with respect to the use and maintenance of personally identifiable information from education records, such as attorneys, auditors, collection agents, or students volunteering to assist another school official in performing their tasks.
  • to officials of other institutions in which the student intends to enroll; 
  • to certain authorized state and federal officials;
  • to appropriate parties in connection with financial aid to the student, including with determining eligibility, amounts, and terms for financial aid, or enforcing the terms and conditions of financial aid;
  • to organizations conducting certain studies for or on behalf of the College;
  • to accrediting organizations;
  • to comply with a judicial order or lawfully ordered subpoena; and
  • to appropriate officials in the case of health and safety emergencies.
  • The regulations of the Act make clear that, in the case of students who are dependents of their parents for Internal Revenue Service purposes, information from the education records of the student may, at the institution’s discretion, be disclosed to parents or guardians without the student’s prior consent. In communications with parents concerning other matters, it is typically College policy to respect the privacy of the student and not to disclose information from educational records without the student’s prior consent.
    • Mount Holyoke College reserves the right to notify parents/guardians of dependent students regarding any health or safety risk, change in student status or student conduct situation, particularly alcohol and other drug violations.
    • Mount Holyoke College may also notify parents/guardians of nondependent students who are under age 21 of alcohol and/or drug policy violations. When a student is nondependent, Mount Holyoke College may contact parents/guardians to inform them of situations in which there is a significant and articulable health and/or safety risk.
    • The College also reserves the right to designate which College officials have a need to know about incidents that fall within this policy, pursuant to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
• The right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education concerning alleged failures by the College to comply with the requirements of FERPA. The name and address of the office that administers FERPA is:

Student Privacy Policy Office
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20202

Directory information

FERPA requires the College to classify certain items from the student educational record as “directory information.” Directory information is information contained in the education records of a student that would not generally be considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if disclosed. These items may be released, at the College’s discretion, to anyone without the student’s prior written consent, unless the student requests that such directory information be withheld. At Mount Holyoke, directory information includes:

• Student name
• student identification number (not Social Security number) 
• class year and expected completion date or date of graduation
• dates of attendance at the College
• institutional contact information (assigned MHC mailing address, and assigned MHC email address)
• home contact information (home address, and cell or landline telephone numbers as provided by the student)
• student photograph
• enrollment status (e.g., undergraduate or non-degree, full- or part-time, on leave)
• date and place of birth
• major(s) and other programs of study
• degrees, honors, and awards received
• participation in officially recognized activities and sports
• height of members of athletic teams
• status as a student employee
• previous educational agency or institution most recently attended.

The College takes a judicious approach to the release of directory information. However, any current individual student may prevent disclosure or release of directory information by filing a request with the Registrar, in writing and with signature. Students are encouraged to consult with the Registrar ahead of time to understand the consequences of preventing release of directory information.

• The Registrar suggests, when possible, that such opt-out requests be filed by the start date of the student’s first semester at the College. Requests received after these dates will be put into effect as quickly as possible but directory information already released cannot be recalled. 
• These requests remain in effect indefinitely until formally revoked by the student or alum in writing. Mount Holyoke alums should review the specific policies of the Mount Holyoke College Alum Association regarding the privacy of alum records.

Students should consider carefully the possible consequences of a decision to restrict the College’s release of directory information. Restricting the release of directory information may result in denied or delayed enrollment and degree verification to persons, agencies, and institutions requesting this information for employment, insurance discounts, school transfer, or related purposes; as well as student exclusion from college publications, such as the commencement program. 

The College assumes no liability for honoring a student’s restriction on disclosure of directory information and is not responsible for contacting students regarding a denial of a request by a third party for access to directory information. Under FERPA, the student is responsible for providing advance written consent for disclosure of information in the protected education record, absent an applicable FERPA exception.

Authorizing student record disclosure in Workday Student

Beginning in February 2027, if a student wishes to authorize the College to disclose non-directory information from their educational records to specific individuals, they should record these authorizations in Workday. Workday provides two options:

1. The student may use the Friends and Family tab within their Student Profile to provide the name and email address of any individual to whom they wish to grant access to the student’s current class schedule and/or final end-of-semester grades. That individual will then receive their own username and password to login to Workday directly and may see the authorized data displays at any time. The student can revoke this access at any time via the Workday Friends and Family tab in their Student Profile.
2. If a student wishes to authorize College officials to disclose additional non-directory information from their educational records to specific individuals, the student may use Workday to name those individuals, choose the categories of information they are authorizing the College to disclose, and assign a PIN/keyword the individual will be required to provide when seeking such disclosure from the designated College source for such inquiries. Setting up the PIN/keyword in Workday serves as the student’s signed, written consent authorizing staff to speak with the PIN/keyword holder about the selected record categories. The student has the right to revoke the permission granted at any time by modifying or removing any disclosure authorization listed in Workday. These disclosure authorizations remain in effect until revoked by the student or until the student graduates, withdraws, or is discontinued from the College — whichever comes first.

Note that registering an Emergency Contact in Workday is separate from FERPA record release permissions.