Wilmington College discloses information in accordance with the provisions of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, as articulated in the regulations published in the Federal Register, June 17, 1976. Basically, these regulations elevate to the status of law what has long been general policy at Wilmington College; namely, that the information in student records is privileged information and is not to be disclosed without prior consent of the student. These regulations also give the student the legal right to have inaccuracies in the records corrected. The student has the right to a hearing in the event of a disagreement as to the accuracy of the records. A record must be maintained of all disclosures of these files to parties other than the student and designated College personnel.
Students and parents of students who are dependents as defined by the Internal Revenue Service have access to student files upon request and may request photocopies of information therein. Three photocopies may be obtained free of charge and a $1.00 charge is assessed for each additional copy. Confidential letters of evaluation and recommendation placed in a student's record prior to January 1, 1975 are not available to students, but all such letters written after that date are available, unless the student has signed a waiver of access.
The following exceptions to the policy of "prior consent of the student" should be noted: In accordance with paragraph 36 of part 99 of the Privacy Rights of Parents and Students under the General Education Provisions Act of 1974, Wilmington College officials will disclose personally identifiable information from the education records of a student to appropriate parties in connection with an emergency, if knowledge of the information is necessary to protect the health or safety of the student or other persons. Under the provisions of paragraph 34 of said part 99, the College reserves the right to disclose information from any of the education records of a student, without his/her consent, to any school in which the student seeks or intends to enroll. A photocopy of such information is available to the student (or parent of a dependent student) upon request. When a student is enrolled simultaneously at Wilmington College and some other institution, e.g., one of the colleges with which Wilmington College has a cross-registration agreement, information in the education records of the student at the two or more institutions involved may be shared by the officials of these institutions with one another without prior consent of the student.
The College maintains the following records or information on the Permanent Academic Record (transcript); the Student Personal File (Office of the Dean of Faculty); the Student Health Record; the Student Accounts Receivable Ledger; the Student Financial Aid File; the Faculty Adviser File; and the Career Center Credentials File (optional). Further information on what is normally released from the student's file, for the institutional directory, for instance, and the student's right to challenge contents in his/her file can be found in the Wilmington College Catalog. (See Records Policy, under Academic Regulations section).