Registrar's Notes

September 4, 2007

Attendance

Please ask your faculty, TA’s, and instructors to pay attention to their class lists, especially during the drop/add period.  It’s far easier on our students if we can correct any registration discrepancies now.

Faculty should report any students on their class list who are not attending, or any students attending who are not on their class list using the REG-Student-Attend@wmich.edu email address. Registrar’s Office staff will attempt to contact the student and resolve the registration issues.  Thanks for your help with this!

FERPA Do’s and Don’ts for Faculty and Staff

As a reminder as we start a new semester:

Do’s

• DO refer requests for information from the educational record of a student to The Office of the Registrar.
• DO keep only those individual student records necessary for your own teaching and advising responsibilities.
• DO keep any personal professional records relating to individual students separate from their educational records. Private notes of a faculty/staff member concerning a student intended for the member's own use are not a part of the student's educational records.
• Do ask if you have any question or concern about releasing student information.  Contact the Registrar’s Office at 387-4300.

Don’ts

• DO NOT display student scores or grades publicly in association with names, SSN, WIN’s or any other personal identifiers.
• DO NOT put papers, exams or any other graded student work in publicly accessible places. Students are not to have access to the scores and grades of others in the class in ways that allow other students to be identified.
• DO NOT share student educational record information, including grades or GPAs with other faculty or staff members unless their official responsibilities identify their "legitimate educational interest" in that information for that student.
• DO NOT share information from student educational records, including grades or GPA's with parents or others outside the institution, including letters of recommendation, without written permission from the student.

FERPA question of the week:

Email addresses can be considered directory information.  True or false?

Emailing class lists

Instructors, as well as Chairs and Department Administrative Assistants, can email a class using the Enterprise Directory Distribution Lists.  For information and directions, please see: www.wmich.edu/oit/helpdesk/email/class-ldap.html.  This is a way for Chairs or Department staff to notify a class of cancellation of a class meeting for example.

Student WIN’s

The WIN, or Western ID Number, can be found on ID cards and also inside GoWMU.  Students can find their WIN inside GoWMU by clicking on ‘User Information Lookup’ on the ‘My Self-Service’ channel. Note that WIN’s should be protected as we protect social security numbers.

Instructor of record

Please check to ensure that all sections in your department do have an instructor of record, and that it is the correct instructor of record.  Also, please cancel or open as appropriate, all sections still on ‘hold’ for the fall semester.

Upcoming dates:

Sept. 4 –  Fall 2007classes begin at 8:00 am
Sept. 10 – Last day of drop/adds
Sept. 11 – Last day departments have access to change student schedules
Sept. 11 – Census Day
Sept. 14 – Last day for students to apply for Dec. 2007 graduation

FERPA question:

True, email addresses can be listed as directory information.  And at WMU, the wmich.edu email addresses are now part of directory information which means they can be disclosed without written consent of the student, unless the student has requested in writing that directory information not be released for them.  Students wishing to request non-disclosure of directory information can complete the paperwork in the Registrar’s Office.  Faculty and staff will know this by the confidential flag on student records in Banner.