Annual Notification of Students' Rights

Transcripts of academic records contain information documenting the student's academic history and certain notations identifying the student's academic status, such as Graduation Date, Dean's List, Academic Probation or Academic Suspension. Non-academic decisions affecting a student, ranging from a meritorious award to student activity involvement to disciplinary expulsion are never printed on an academic transcript. Information from counseling or disciplinary files should not be available to unauthorized persons on campus, or to any person off campus, without the express consent of that student, except under legal compulsion or in cases where the safety of persons or property in involved. No records should be kept which reflect the political activities or beliefs of Centenary students. Administrative staff, including faculty, must respect confidentiality information about students as that information is acquired in the course of the staff's Centenary work.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) affords students certain rights with respect to their education records. These rights include:

The right to inspect and review the student's education records within 45 days of the day the College receives a request for access. Students should submit to theRegistrar, dean, provost, head of the academic department, or other appropriate official, written requests that identify the record(s) they wish to inspect. The College official will make arrangements for access and notify the student of the time and place where the records may be inspected. If the records are not maintained by the College official to whom the request was submitted, that official shall advise the student of the correct official to whom the request should be addressed.
The right to request the amendment of the student's education records that the student believes are inaccurate or misleading. Students may ask the College to amend a record that they believe is inaccurate or misleading. They should write the College official responsible for the record, clearly identify the part of the record they want changed, and specify why it is inaccurate or misleading. If the College decides not to amend the record as requested by the student, the College will notify the student of the decision and advise the student of his or her right to a hearing regarding the request for amendment. Additional information regarding the hearing procedures will be provided to the student when notified of the right to a hearing. This right to amendment does not include a grade assigned by an instructor for a course; although not covered by FERPA, Centenary has a procedure outlined in the catalogue explaining the student's right to due process for challenging grades.
The right to consent to disclosures of personally identifiable information contained in the student's education records, except to the extent that FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent*. One exception, which permits disclosure without consent, is disclosure to school officials with legitimate educational interests. A school official is a person employed by the College in an administrative, supervisory, academic or research, or support staff position (including Centenary's public safety personnel and health staff); a person or company with whom the College has contracted (such as an attorney, auditor, or collection agent); a person or organization acting as an official agent of the institution and performing a business function or service on behalf of the institution (the function or service must be one that the institution normally would perform itself); a person serving on the Board of Trustees; or a student serving on an official committee, (such as a disciplinary or grievance committee or a faculty/student committee), or a student worker assisting another school official or administrative office in performing his or her tasks. A school official has a legitimate educational interest if the official needs to review an education record in order to fulfill his or her professional responsibility. Upon request, the College discloses education records without consent to officials of another school in which a student seeks or intends to enroll.

"Disclosure" as defined by FERPA means "access to or the release, transfer, or other communication of personally identifiable information contained in education records to any party, by any means, including oral, written, or electronic" (Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1232g(b)(1)).
#The right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education concerning alleged failures by Centenary College of Louisiana to comply with the requirements of FERPA. The name and address of the Office that administers FERPA is: Family Policy Compliance Office, U.S. Department of Education, 600 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20202-4605.

As of January 3, 2012, the U.S. Department of Education's FERPA regulations expand the circumstances under which your education records and personally identifiable information (PII) contained in such records — including your Social Security Number, grades, or other private information — may be accessed without your consent. First, the U.S. Comptroller General, the U.S. Attorney General, the U.S. Secretary of Education, or state and local education authorities ("Federal and State Authorities") may allow access to your records and PII without your consent to any third party designated by a Federal or State Authority to evaluate a federal- or state-supported education program. The evaluation may relate to any program that is "principally engaged in the provision of education," such as early childhood education and job training, as well as any program that is administered by an education agency or institution. Second, Federal and State Authorities may allow access to your education records and PII without your consent to researchers performing certain types of studies, in certain cases even when we object to or do not request such research. Federal and State Authorities must obtain certain use-restriction and data security promises from the entities that they authorize to receive your PII, but the Authorities need not maintain direct control over such entities. In addition, in connection with Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems, State Authorities may collect, compile, permanently retain, and share without your consent PII from your education records, and they may track your participation in education and other programs by linking such PII to other personal information about you that they obtain from other Federal or State data sources, including workforce development, unemployment insurance, child welfare, juvenile justice, military service, and migrant student records systems.

Students have the right to request that officials of the College not disclose certain personal "directory" information that would otherwise be available upon request to the general public. Centenary College has established the following as "directory information":

Category A

Name
Home/Local Address
Home/Local Telephone Numbers
Place of Birth
E-Mail Login
Picture or Photographic Representation

Category B

Name
Academic Major(s) and/or Minor(s)
Classification
Enrollment Status
Dates of Attendance
Degrees, Certificates, or Awards Received
Previous Colleges Attended
Weight/Height of Member of Athletic teams
Participants in Officially Recognized Activities and Sports

Directory information will be disclosed to the general public unless a student requests that any or all items of her/his directory information not be released.

A student may change their privacy request for category A items at any time. To do so, a student can pick up and sign a form, either in the Student Life Office or in the Registrar’s Office. Their preferences will be changed at that time.

To request non-disclosure of Category B items, a student must notify the Registrar’s Office in writing prior to the end of the second day of classes during an enrollment period.

Note the following conditions that apply without exception when a student requests non-disclosure of directory information from either category:

Requests for non-disclosure of any item under Category A results in NONE of the items in Category A being released. The student information system cannot block single items within a category.
The same condition applies to items under Category B.
The general public includes parents, employers, prospective employers, graduate schools (if the student has not made an official attempt to seek admittance), journalists, and other parties who might be acting on behalf of the student's interests. Non-disclosure of directory information means that information will not be released to these persons during the period of time the non-disclosure is in effect.
The request for non-disclosure of directory information applies to the entire period of time between opportunities the College provides to authorize such requests. Normally these opportunities will be at the beginning of each enrollment session (fall, spring, summer, or MBA Module). Once a request is formally made, it will not be changed until the next notification opportunity. A request for non-disclosure of directory information that is made in a student's last semester at Centenary College remains in effect permanently unless the student asks upon leaving the campus that this request be rescinded. The College reserves its rights under FERPA not to release Directory Information for such students if they are not enrolled at the institution, even if they subsequently consent to the release while they are not enrolled at the institution.
The College also reserves its rights under FERPA to release Directory Information for students who are not enrolled at the institution if these students authorized disclosure of such information during the last session they were enrolled, even if they subsequently request non-disclosure while they are not enrolled at the institution.

More information about the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

Last updated: September 2014