Student Privacy Rights

University of Northwestern conforms to the requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), as amended. This Act was designed to protect the privacy of educational records, to establish rights of students to inspect and review their educational records, and to provide guidelines for the correction of inaccurate or misleading data through formal and informal hearings. Students have the right to file complaints with the Family Policy Compliance Office (under the U.S. Department of Education) concerning alleged failures by the University to comply with this Act.

In keeping with the requirements of the Act, the University hereby designates the following items of student information as public, or Directory Information. Such information may be disclosed by the institution for any purpose at its discretion:
- name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, digitized image/photograph/video, date and place of birth, major field of study, dates of attendance, grade level, enrollment status (e.g., undergraduate, full-time or part-time, etc.), participation in officially recognized activities and sports, weight and height of members of athletic teams, degrees, honors and awards received, and the most recent previous educational institution attended.

Currently-enrolled students may withhold disclosure of information under the provisions of this Act. The University assumes that failure to specifically request the withholding of categories of Directory Information indicates approval of disclosure.

Each student should give careful consideration to the consequences of any decision to withhold Directory Information. Should the student decide to do this, all future requests for Directory Information, however legitimate, will be refused. The University cannot accept the responsibility for contacting the student or former students for permission to release requested information. The University assumes no responsibility for honoring an instruction to withhold Directory Information.

By provision of FERPA, with some exceptions, grades, transcripts, and other non-Directory Information cannot be issued to a third party without the written consent of the student.

For further information see the Registrar 's FERPA website.

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