Learning Content

Please visit Dartmouth's FERPA Tutorial to learn more about maintaining the confidentiality of student data and to gain a basic understanding of the rules governing release of student information at Dartmouth College.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education.

The Dartmouth Information Security Policy and DISC (Dartmouth Information Security Committee) Policy contained therein are key tools for governing data.

The Access to User-Related Electronic Information at Dartmouth policy sets out guidelines and processes for Dartmouth's Access to User-Related Electronic Information stored in or transmitted through any Dartmouth System.

The Office of Institutional Research (OIR) provides timely and accurate analytical services and information, both to our internal and external constituents, for executive decision making and policy development. To this end, OIR accesses and curates institutional data for reporting or analysis, some of which is available in the following places:

Interactive Fact Book - includes data on students, faculty, staff, and other institutional information

Common Data Set - includes basic information about Dartmouth

Survey Research - OIR administers and/or coordinates surveys on a wide-range of topics important to the Dartmouth community. Certain surveys are conducted in conjunction with outside consortia and generate results with external benchmarking; others are conducted independently. Many of these surveys are administered on a fairly regular basis and target various Dartmouth populations, including students, faculty, staff, alumni and parents.

Dartmouth's Records Management program guides faculty and staff in creating, maintaining, disseminating, and destroying or archiving College records in compliance with legal, regulatory, and institutional standards.

A record is defined broadly as any recorded information, in any format, generated in the course of College business that must be retained to meet fiscal, legal, historical, or administrative needs. Electronic records specifically include anything created, received, maintained, or stored on on-premises servers or College-managed cloud services, regardless of the application used. Common examples include email, word-processed documents, spreadsheets, and databases.

Two key policies govern this area. The Records Management and Archives Access Policy helps faculty and staff make sound decisions about producing, maintaining, and using recorded information over the long term. The Records Retention and Destruction Policy addresses how records are retained and disposed of, and applies across all Dartmouth schools and departments; it establishes that records belong to Dartmouth, not to the individual employees who create or maintain them.

Employees who handle records in the course of their duties are expected to work with Records Management to ensure records are managed according to best practices and the relevant retention schedule.