by Lara Medley, Registrar, Colorado School of Mines and Chair, AACRAO State and Regional Relations Committee
On October 8th and 9th, Colorado School of Mines hosted the FERPA Professor, LeRoy Rooker, for a two-day series of presentations and discussions concerning FERPA basics and legislative updates.
The first session was dedicated to our regional Rocky Mountain AACRAO (RMACRAO) members. One hundred members attended representing 35 institutions from Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming. LeRoy provided all of the basics of FERPA as well as a very timely and helpful legislative update from Capitol Hill.
The other four sessions were directed toward CSM faculty, the IT office, administrative staff, and executive administration. The two days went very well and the information was appreciated by all involved.
Remember that you can create your own FERPACON at your campus or for your state or regional ACRAO organization through AACRAO Consulting.
You can also bring the AACRAO staff to your campus to assess your FERPA compliance. In the wake of highly-publicized incidents involving well known institutions, FERPA compliance has become a key issue for universities and colleges nationwide. AACRAO FERPA will help you address your student privacy issues by understanding and implementing correct policies and procedures for protecting information. They will conduct a comprehensive audit at your campus, assist you with putting the right policies in place, and issue an audit certificate upon successful completion validating your commitment to protecting students’ privacy. Audits can be scaled to include FERPA, HIPAA, or comprehensive legal issues at your institution.
Colorado School of Mines would like to thank both LeRoy Rooker for providing great information and presentations, as well as Karl Johnson from Lifetouch Special Events who provided the photography for the conference. They have both been assimilated into CSM, being given official hard-hats. Go Orediggers!