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[michigander]

I'm a retired administrator/academic advisor now working part-time at a liberal arts college as a tutor.  Last semester we had a student who appears to have a very serious mental health issue going on.  He was problematic for several of us tutors, all of his professors, and several administrators and has been suspended pending a hearing on the possibility of expulsion.  When I came to work this morning, I found posted in our tutoring center a photocopy of the student's photo ID with a handwritten notation reading, "STOP ORDER. Do Not Allow On Campus" and an effective date.  It is in a place where everyone who enters the space can't help but see it.  This makes me very uncomfortable.  It feels improper, unethical and, at minimum, like a FERPA violation.  What do you think?  What, if anything, ought I to do?

[zharkov]

Is "stop order" some sort of legal term?  Like a restraining order or something?  If so, perhaps it is a public safety issue, no longer a FERPA issue.

[hegemony]

If he's unsafe to have on campus and you're supposed to report it if he shows up, I don't see how this should be concealed -- ?

[michigander]

I don't know what a stop order is.  My guess is that the notice was intended for the security officers who staff the campus gates.  That's why I think that it doesn't belong on our tutoring center's wall.  I've been a part-timer here for nine years, and I've never heard the term "stop order" before.  I know that colleges and universities in Michigan have the right to ban people from their campuses as long as procedures are followed, but I've never been in a position to know what the basis for such a ban can be and what the procedurers are.  We have two co-directors for our center.  The one who is here today says that she protested that she found the posting to be inappropriate and likely to result in negative consequences but that she was "overruled."  I didn't pursue the matter feeling that as a part-time, seasonal employee this would be a good time to STFU.

[hegemony]

If this person is a danger to have on campus, then it seems better to me to err on the side of caution, don't you think? 

[michigander]

I'm acquainted with the student but have not worked with him closely.  My colleagues who have worked with him do not feel threatened by him.  Their impression is that he's hard to work with and not entirely rational but not dangerous.  I will certainly pick up the phone and call Security if I see him on campus because I've been instructed to do so (in my role as a college employee with a need to know).  I don't see this as a situation where the student body has a need to know which is why I see it as a potential FERPA issue that the "stop order" is posted by our center's door.

[chronanon]

It is not likely a FERPA violation, at least as you have described it.  ID number, photograph, and name are typically defined by the institution as "directory information" and are therefore it is permissible to share those bits of data (unless the student has submitted a request for no directory information to be shared). 

The fact that there's a handwritten note saying the student should not be allowed on campus does not necessarily make the piece of paper an educational record.  Even if it is an educational record, there are exceptions in FERPA for health and safety issues and for the results of disciplinary hearings.

Not saying the posting is right or wrong, just that it is unlikely that it is a violation of FERPA.

[itried]

It's possible that there's a back story to which you and others are not privy... maybe he threatened bodily harm to a faculty member, staff member, or student. If that's true, then it seems reasonable to me that the university is dodging liability by covering all their bases, particularly in light of the scrutiny that universities like Virginia Tech have come under for their responses to shooters on campus.

Also, it's possible that administrators looked into the legality of the action prior to posting the photo and stop order.

[notaprof]

Does the notice indicate who authorized the posting?  The fact that it is a handwritten note seems to indicate it may not have been an official posting from the appropriate person/office on campus.  

Ditto to what ITried Hegemony and Zharkov said, the fact that the notice (if official by order of the campus safety office, etc.) has appeared seems to indicate that there is indeed a backstory.  If the student is now a threat, then it is just due diligence to alert the campus.  If he was familiar on campus and the sight of him did not set off an alarm bell in one's head, it could be putting the safety of many people at risk.    If he has been expelled and as a result indicated any sort of threat, I think any FERPA protections that might have existed would no longer apply.

[brixton]

Have you called security or Student Affairs and asked what it means? I'm sure they'll enlighten to the best of their ability.

[michigander]

Good points and questions since my last posting!  Thanks all for your wisdom.  I've shifted totally into STFU mode on this -- it helps that I'm now away from there until Monday.  I have an excellent relationship with the co-director who I asked about this initially.  When I left work yesterday, she initiated a short chat with me.  Reading between the lines it's clear she was telling me that, while she agrees with my concerns, there are reasons of institutional politics that both of us would be better off just not going there.  So I won't.

[infopri]

It is not likely a FERPA violation, at least as you have described it.  ID number, photograph, and name are typically defined by the institution as "directory information" and are therefore it is permissible to share those bits of data (unless the student has submitted a request for no directory information to be shared). 

The fact that there's a handwritten note saying the student should not be allowed on campus does not necessarily make the piece of paper an educational record.  Even if it is an educational record, there are exceptions in FERPA for health and safety issues and for the results of disciplinary hearings.

Not saying the posting is right or wrong, just that it is unlikely that it is a violation of FERPA.

This.  Chronanon has it exactly right.

It's possible that there's a back story to which you and others are not privy... maybe he threatened bodily harm to a faculty member, staff member, or student. If that's true, then it seems reasonable to me that the university is dodging liability by covering all their bases, particularly in light of the scrutiny that universities like Virginia Tech have come under for their responses to shooters on campus.

Also, it's possible that administrators looked into the legality of the action prior to posting the photo and stop order.

And this. 

Have you called security or Student Affairs and asked what it means? I'm sure they'll enlighten to the best of their ability.

And, finally, this.  If you were going to pursue this, you'd need to find out who issued this order (probably not Student Affairs, but Security should know who it was if it wasn't the Security Department who issued it) and, if they'll tell you, why it was issued.

Don't forget that FERPA is not a blanket privacy law.  It protects student records and the information they contain--nothing more, nothing less.

[michigander]

I'm back in the writing center today, and the "stop order" is gone.  It turns out that it was posted at the request of the director of security and then was removed because someone (unidentified to me) decided that it was "illegal" to post it.  I have no idea if that was someone's interpretation of FERPA, if there's a state statute involved, or what that means.  I'm not pursuing it because it seems that the whole thing is over.