Each term, the Academic Advisors at the Athletic Study Center (ASC) send class instructors requests for mid-term progress reports. We ask instructors to include information such as class attendance, participation, grades on assignments/exams/papers, and/or anything else they feel is pertinent to the student's progress in their class.
Who is the Athletic Study Center (ASC)?
The Athletic Study Center (ASC), an academic support unit which reports to the Division of Undergraduate Education, is committed to working with faculty, staff, and administrators on campus to ensure that student athletes utilize the appropriate academic support available to them.
The mission of the ASC is to encourage student athletes to integrate, participate, and become vested members in the academic community. While it is important to emphasize that student athletes should not be treated differently than other students, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) requires that the institution monitor the academic progress of this student population in particular. As such, we hope to establish and maintain an open line of communication between instructors, their academic department, and this office.
What is the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)?
FERPA prohibits the improper disclosure of personally identifiable information derived from education records. So what does FERPA say about an Academic Advisor of the school asking an Instructor for a progress report about a student in their class?
In subsection 99.13, FERPA consent is not required if the disclosure is to other school officials within the institution whom the institution has determined to have legitimate educational interests. A school official generally has a legitimate educational interest if the official needs to review an education record in order to fulfill their professional responsibility. The DOE interprets "school officials" to include a list of roles, including counselors. The ASC Academic Advisors are performing this type of work.
The University Registrar has created a one page FERPA Disclosure Guide.pdf. On this guide, this type of faculty-to-staff communication is considered Type 3 - "Release for University use only, based on a need to know and for a legitimate educational interest." Type 3 categories of information include: Class schedule, Current academic status, GPA's, Grades, and Past academic status.
How Does Athletics Fit In?
The ASC Advisors record the mid-term progress reports in the ASC's data management system. Athletic staff, such as coaches and compliance staff, have access to this same system, but none of the athletic roles display the mid-term progress reports. This means that Athletics has no direct access to the reports.
Throughout the term, the ASC Advisors create Academic Progress Reports to share with coaches. These reports can contain partial versions of the mid-term progress reports (typically edited to focus on a key issue). It is the ASC's opinion that these coaches have a legitimate educational interest because they are working as a team with ASC staff to support the students. Since this could be seen as a gray area, the Athletics' Compliance department gets each student to sign a FERPA Information Release form that explicitly allows Athletics staff access to their educational records.
Q & A
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Can I send FERPA data via email? |
Normally, no. But if the transmission is from and to a berkeley-edu account (bMail), then it is acceptable. Make sure that the recipient is not forwarding their bMail account to another personal account. In the case of our email requests for data, the reply-to account is asc-advising-at-berkeley.edu (which is not forwarded anywhere). |
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Why do you need the reports? |
We request this information to look for patterns and draw the attention of the student to any issues that we hear about. We can also mobilize various resources for tutoring, etc., if there are specific shortfalls. |
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Doesn't FERPA say that I can't share this information without the student's consent? |
Within the University, you can share education data, without the student's consent, provided the receiving staff member has a legitimate need to know to perform their duties. It should be clear, based on their job description, that receiving the information would help them do their job better. |
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Why not just wait for the mid-term grades? |
One key purpose is to get timely information about student's that are struggling, so that we have as much time as possible to assist the student. We also like to hear about student's successes in their classes. The mid-term deficient grades (which are not always posted by instructors) are a blunt instrument and often come a bit too late to allow time for the student to make significant improvement. |
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Why not just ask the student directly? |
We do. But we would like to hear from the entire team: Instructors or GSI's, College and Major Advisors, Tutors and Learning Specialists. Sometimes students don't always understand the information they are getting, or they think (or maybe fool themselves) that they're doing better than they really are. |
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What do you need in the reports? |
Information such as class attendance, participation, grades on assignments/exams/papers, and/or anything else you feel is pertinent to the student's progress in your class would be much appreciated. |
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I asked my student, and they did not know about this request. Why is it a secret? |
Throughout each term, our Academic Advisors talk with many staff and instructors about their students. This is not a secret, but we also do not, typically, include the student in these conversations. For most instructors, this is probably the only time that they are being asked to communicate directly with the ASC's Academic Advisors, so it could seem unusual. As the request email states, these requests each term are about establishing open communication between the ASC and instructors. The information you provide will inform our conversations with our students - sometimes directly referring to the reports. |
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Is the ASC part of Intercollegiate Athletics? |
No. The ASC is an academic service department in the Division of Undergraduate Education |