Official notification of final grades - stamped postcard please!

[Clement Henry <chenry@mail.la.utexas.edu>]

I am distributing the following memo sent to all faculty from the
Provost concerning respecting student confidentiality.  Basically we can
no longer post your grades.  So if you cannot wait in December to find
out your final grade, just remember to give Ji-Hyang a stamped
self-addressed postcard, or a stamped self-addressed envelop with a
piece of paper in it if you do not want the postman to see your grade.
Sorry to inconvenience everyone for the Principle of Privacy!

Clement Henry

November 18, 2002

Confidential Student Information – Effective Immediately

We have recently been advised that the Office of Management, US
Department of Education, has ruled in a case from another State that the
public posting on the Web (or by any other medium) of final course
grades using the last four digits of a student's social security number
is a violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA
or the "Buckley Amendment.")

Accordingly, effectively immediately all academic work grades, including
final course grades, exams, quizzes, and homework, or any other
confidential student information may not be publicly disclosed or
posted, on the Web or by any other medium, using any part or combination
of a student's social security number without the written consent of
each student. Please note that since final course grades may be inferred
from the collection of raw scores on exams, quizzes, etc., our policy is
written to include all academic work to avoid any confusion or dispute
as to what constitutes a confidential student record. In summary, our
policy prohibits the disclosure of any confidential student information
in a personally identifiable manner, which now include name, student
identification number, social security number or a portion thereof,
without the student's written consent.

Faculty may continue to use student specific password protected systems
(such as UT Direct and its applications) to communicate academic work
grades or other confidential information to individual students.
Students may also access their final course grades using UT Direct
services. ITS is currently developing an e-grade book application that
may be available in Spring 03, which will also provide faculty with a
password protected system to communicate academic work grades to
individual students.

Sheldon Ekland-Olson
Executive Vice President and Provost
The University of Texas at Austin