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Judge tells UO to cease and desist using FERPA to hide documents

UO’s Public Records Office has argued that the Federal Educational Records Protection Act (FERPA) requires them to redact the names of students from public records they release – even when the names are already public, such as lists of committee members. The Student Press Law Center has fought this sort of practice for years, and has a good guide to the law here.

UO also claims that FERPA prevents them from releasing the names of students and details of the complaint, when complaints by students are used against faculty and staff. Here is an example of the redacted report provided to a professor by AAEO Director Penny Daugherty, about a complaint filed against them (which was determined to be unfounded). The green redactions indicate parts UO redacted under its interpretation of FERPA:

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Last year UO’s SEIU staff union filed an unfair labor practice complaint against UO over this use of FERPA in staff discipline cases. SEIU took the cases to arbitration, and UO refused to show the union all the documents related to the student complaints. Last month Oregon Administrative Law Judge Martin Kehoe ruled against UO. The full ruling (which has to go through another step before becoming final) is here. The gist is after the break: UO’s definition of “an educational record” is too broad.

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9 Comments

  1. Prince 04/17/2016

    What’s with the hot pink redactions?

    • uomatters Post author | 04/18/2016

      No idea.

      • just different 04/18/2016

        black = not directly related to you, so MYOB
        blue = attorney-client privilege
        green = FERPA/privacy
        yellow = “frank communication” exemption/privacy
        hot pink = we’re trying to blind you

        • uomatters Post author | 04/18/2016

          That would explain why we don’t see much yellow in UO documents. Lack of “frank communications”.

          • anon 04/18/2016

            That’s the comment of the week. Stop by your own office to pick up your choice of UOM swag.

          • just different 04/18/2016

            Seriously, I think pink = personnel records.

  2. Anonymous 04/18/2016

    It is easy to attempt to cover one’s ass than to make correct and principled decisions. Over-redactions is a symptom of inadequate legal advice and cowardly administrative teams that use that advice.

    Hopefully the new regime will continue to move in the right direction.

  3. fruit-fly 04/19/2016

    “Don’t be fooled again….”; hot pink means there is LBGQT involved…..

  4. Old Grey Mare 04/19/2016

    I thought it was Preppy FERPA.

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