USD's Annual Notification to Students​

The Family Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA, or the "Buckley Amendment") protects the privacy of all enrolled students and requires that students be notified annually of their rights under the law.

Under the provisions of FERPA, school officials may release directory information at their discretion without prior consent of the student. At USD, directory information includes student’s name, e-mail address, major field of study, dates of attendance, participation in officially recognized activities and sports, degrees, honors, awards received, and photograph. The student has the right to withhold disclosure of all information and may do so by completing the “Request to Restrict Directory Information” form available on the One Stop Student Center site and on the USD portal. A restriction prevents USD from releasing any information about a student, including the student’s attendance, and must be filed annually. The names of students who have restricted their directory information will not appear in University publications with the exception of the Commencement program at the appropriate time. Students who wish for their name not to appear in the Commencement program must contact the Office of the Registrar. For internal purposes or for USD publications, the University may use photographic, video, or electronic images of students taken without students’ knowledge.

For students who have a confidential indicator but have also designated an authorized user(s), USD may disclose information to the authorized user for the areas indicated on the student’s FERPA release. The student is responsible for removing the authorized user(s) from the FERPA release if they no longer wish for the user to obtain information about them.

A "school official" is any person employed by the University in an administrative, supervisory, academic, research or support staff position (including law enforcement unit, health staff, and student workers); a person of a company with whom the University has contracted (such as an attorney, auditor, or collection agent); a person serving on the Board of Trustees; a person assisting another school official 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 University discloses education records without consent to officials of another school in which a student seeks or intends to enroll.

Students may grant their parents (or others) permission to access their educational records by filing an “Authorization to Release Education Records” form also available on the One Stop Student Center site and the FERPA link on the USD portal. This form remains in effect until rescinded by the student in writing. Parents do not have the right to view records without the written consent of the student unless the student is a tax dependent (IRS Code 1986, Section 152). Parents who verify tax dependency can obtain access to education records.

The University provides students the right to inspect and review their educational records within 45 days of written request for access. Students should submit to the registrar, dean, head of the academic department, or other appropriate school official, written requests that identify the record(s) they wish to inspect. The school official will make arrangements for access and notify the student of the time and place where records may be inspected. If the records are not maintained by the school official to whom the request was submitted, that official shall advise the student of the correct official to whom the request should be addressed.

Students may amend or correct their records if information there is inaccurate, misleading, or incomplete. Students have the right to a hearing if the records are not corrected. If a student is dissatisfied with the results of a hearing, he or she may place a statement in the records to that effect.