IU phones home

When I was a freshman judicial board member, I found that one of the most common IU policies to elicit head turns from students was IU’s practice of notifying their parents in many instances if they were under 21 and were found responsible for an alcohol or drug violation.

I found the policy to be a head-scratcher, too.

Under the 1974 Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, colleges are prohibited from communicating a great deal of private information to parents, including grades and health problems.

But a 1998 amendment to FERPA permitted colleges to inform parents when their under-21-year-old children were disciplined for substance violations.

“Red Cup Q&A,” a feature written by University of Arizona health staff for the student newspaper, highlights an important disconnect between the policy’s critics and its supporters.

In one issue, “Red Cup” responds to the question of why 18-year-old men and women shouldn’t be solely responsible for their own disciplinary violations.

“Red Cup” simply responds that under FERPA, colleges may, but are not required to, notify parents when their underage children have engaged insubstance-related misconduct.

“Red Cup” goes on to explain that the intent of the policy is to allow parents to “become involved before their son or daughter gets into more serious trouble with substances,” and that according to a survey by the Association for Student

Judicial Affairs’ Model Policy Committee, 72 percent of parents support the policy.

These campus health professionals at no point address the very important aspect of the privacy rights of adults head-on.

Parental involvement would no doubt help students who are engaging in substance abuse.

And it’s unsurprising that most parents support parental notification policies.

But it is also important to keep in mind that we are discussing adults who otherwise have a high degree of privacy surrounding their educational records.

Would we really want to suggest they have fewer privacy rights than their peers who have not chosen to pursue higher education?

I believe that IU’s use of FERPA’s parental notification policy is reflective of an underlying tug-of-war between the notion of the student as a legal adult and as a growing, quasi-dependent person.

Yes, we live, work and learn on our own for the most part. But parents still exert a direct force in many of our lives.

Still, some students are truly independent from their parents.

Some do not rely on their parents to finance their education.

Still others have parents who fully respect their autonomy and would want nothing more than for their children to develop into adults who are responsible for the consequences of their choices.

For all their desired outcomes, mandatory parental notification policies tread on student privacy rights, as well as the bond of trust between the student and the school.

These policies are also rather blind to the fact that there is no universal mold for the relationship between students andparents.

Fortunately, there is a middle-ground solution to this quandary.

IU already allows students to grant their parents access to financial aid information, grades and even exam schedules.

Allowing students to similarly opt-in to parental notification for disciplinary issues would keep them fully in control of their records while still allowing them and their parents to make a decision together about sharing access to deeply personal information.

­— danoconn@indiana.edu