student Privacy
For over four decades, federal law has guaranteed that students control their own personal and academic information. Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), institutions of higher education are subject to strict privacy requirements in their role as temporary custodians of student records, but it is students who generally determine what may be done with their personal information.
In recent years, one of the most significant challenges to student privacy has come in the form of various proposals to establish a federal student unit record data system (SURD). The systematic collection of data on individual students that would occur under SURD poses a serious and substantial risk to student privacy. Although the Higher Education Act currently prohibits the creation of such a system, some policymakers have advocated for overturning this ban. NAICU, however, has opposed the creation of a student unit record data system due to the belief that the benefits of such a system do not outweigh the risks to student privacy.