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In Loco Parentis

10/26/2010 update: A careful, and helpful, reader points out that the SSA email says:

For your information, each student-athlete has signed the NCAA Student-Athlete statement, which includes the Buckley Amendment Consent Declaration, which allows Services for Student Athletes the right to this information.

Not our first mistake, or our last. Our arguments, and data, about the $2.0 million subsidy remain unchallenged.

10/23/2010: Just got the quarterly request from the Services for Student-Athletes jock box folks:

Dear Instructor,

The student/s listed below are registered in your class and represent the University of Oregon in Intercollegiate Athletics. Our staff would greatly appreciate any information pertaining to the progress of these students, especially in regards to test scores, assignment grades, attendance, and missing work, as well as any other comments you may wish to include.  This helps us tremendously, in that we can evaluate a student’s progress in your class.  …

On the one hand, my understanding is that under FERPA I am not even allowed to give this information to the student’s parents, if they asked for it. I assume SSA has permission (their email does not say) but still this feels weird.

On the other hand, UO should clearly have some sort of system for early identification and counseling of students in academic trouble.

This should be for all students, not just the jocks. Particularly since the budget for SSA – $1.8 $2.0 million – comes from general tuition funds paid by all students and not from athletic department revenues or Duck Athletic Fund donations. What a scam. Anyway, how do other faculty handle these requests?

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