2007 Annual Meeting

Today’s Compliance Issues

Presenter: Beth Rogers

Beth presented a brief history of FERPA which is 33 years old now. President Gerald Ford signed the bill into effect and within 90 days it had it’s first amendment – there are currently 10 amendments to the Buckley Amendment (commonly referred to as FERPA). Because ours is such an easily accessible information society we have to stay one step ahead of the criminal element in our tracking and protection of student data. Every college and university that has access to federal aid must comply with FERPA and so the challenge is uppermost to protect data integrity. Berry College in Georgia is using a new approach called Keystroke Biometrics to preserve their data – the software that has been developed for this institution will measure keystroke biometrics of users, such as the amount of time that a user typically depresses a key or the interval between keystrokes to recognize unauthorized users. Vanderbilt University has an online tutorial that is available to all faculty and staff regarding FERPA rules and regulations. Vanderbilt University requires every student sign a release form designating parental access to their records.

Beth presented a series of scenarios that either did or did not require adherence to FERPA guidelines and discussions ensued regarding situations we have encountered at our schools and how we handled them and still maintained compliance.

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