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[morefromles]

I'm a new department chair, and I'm faced with needing to field a complaint from an irate parent who feels, according to the administrative assistant who took the call, that an adjunct faculty member is dealing inappropriately with her daughter.  Again according to the adminstrative assistant, the parent believes that the faculty member called her daughter stupid in comments on the student's essay.  Since I don't have all of the details, I'm trying not to form a judgement, though I must admit that my tendency is to think that the parent is overreacting, since I know the faculty member in question, and the comment the parent quoted involved an analogy that I did not interpret to mean that the student was stupid.  Plus, why is the parent calling for the student?  These are college students, not high school kids!  Anway, I'm wondering if people have some boilerplate language or templates they use when listening to these kinds of complaints.  I sometimes get tripped up on what exactly to say in situations where I can't really say what I'm thinking (e.g., "You're off base and overprotective; let your kid get her own life" etc).  I would really appreciate hearing how others deal with these sorts of situations. 

[dellaroux]

FERPA.

You can't discuss without the student's permission anyway, right?

[terpsichore]

Just say you can't discuss a student's grade with anyone other than the student. Here's more about FERPA, the federal law that protects student privacy.

http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html

[tuxthepenguin]

"Please have your daughter contact my secretary to set up an appointment to discuss the matter."

If she insists on getting involved, just tell her that the normal procedure is to first get all the details from the student involved and then have a discussion with the instructor. I've seen such a thing before (it's common these days for parents to do the calling) and this is always the response from the department head. Do not be surprised if in her response you find out how much she paid for her daughter's tuition last semester.

[der_gadfly]

FERPA.

You can't discuss without the student's permission anyway, right?

Correct. And even if you DO get explicit written permission, there is no part of the law that requires you to do so.

Mother-dearest neds to step back and let her darling little angel fight her own battles like a man.

[anthroid]

Yeah, I wouldn't deal with the parent.  Tux has the right language.  Apologize to the parent if she calls again and tell her that regrettably "policy" forbids you talking with her about her daughter since her daughter is an adult.  You don't even have to identify which "policy," which gets you out of the FERPA game.  Personally, I have my own individual policy not to talk with parents about grades, ever, regardless of whether the student has signed a waiver. 

[morefromles]

Thanks for all of your replies.  I feel so green not to have known that I couldn't discuss the situation with the parent without the student's permission.  The situation ended up fine, though the dean, my co-chair, and I endured many calls from both the mother and the daughter before it was all resolved.