FERPA

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a Federal law enacted in 1974 that protects the privacy of students.

Understanding Your Rights Under FERPA

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. At the University of Maine at Farmington, FERPA ensures that students have the right to review their records and request corrections if they are inaccurate, misleading, or violate their privacy rights.

UMF also designates certain information as “Directory Information,” which may be shared publicly unless a student chooses to restrict its release. This includes details such as your name (legal and chosen), mailing address, program of study, dates of attendance, enrollment status, degrees and awards received, and most recent previous education. Students can take formal action if they prefer to keep this information private.

Managing Your Directory Information Privacy

While University of Maine System personnel may no longer disclose phone numbers, date of birth, or addresses other than Mailing as Directory Information, that information is still available to be accessed for legitimate education purposes in the same manner as other non-Directory items (e.g. student ID numbers, gender, etc.) are now.

Again, students may request that their Directory Information not be released at any time while they are an enrolled student at UMF.

To do this, students must submit a Request to Suppress Directory Information form to the UMF Merrill Center.

See our confidentiality, privacy, and FERPA disclosure policy in full