Dear FERPA Professor,
Over the past few years, a university professor has been telling students and colleagues to email her at her personal email address, which is hosted through Gmail. Unfortunately, that email address is one letter off of mine, and as a consequence I am unintentionally sent correspondence on a fairly routine basis. These emails have contained sensitive documents such as grades, transcripts, graduate applications, and interdepartmental correspondence. The professor does have a University supplied email address, but tells students to use Gmail since "she responds much quicker" than with her university account.
Does this use of a non-university email account violate FERPA? What other recourse do I have other than to inform students of the wrong email address? If I am not the student, can I report a FERPA violation? Unfortunately, I feel like this won't be resolved unless she uses her university account, and I feel uncomfortable being sent private and confidential information.
Regards,
Jane Doh
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Jane,
Let me begin by agreeing with you that the practice by the professor is not a good one. This not only puts the professor's email at risk but also means that these emails residing with the professor are education records of the various students that are being maintained on the professor's private email server rather than the institution’s. The institution is, however, responsible for those records, even though they don’t reside on an institutionally-controlled server, and the institution would be at risk for any unauthorized disclosure or use of those education records.
Concerning the emails you receive, if they are from the professor, then any information from a student's education record would be an unauthorized disclosure under FERPA. If the students are sending the information to you rather than the proper school official, then this would not be a disclosure under FERPA.
I hope this is helpful in responding to your inquiry.
The FERPA Professor
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