Monday, October 15, 2001

U.S. House Approves Antiterror Legislation With Added Protections for Student Privacy By RON SOUTHWICK Washington As part of the war on terrorism, the House of Representatives passed a measure Friday giving authorities more power to view students' personal records, but lawmakers also approved provisions sought by college lobbyists to protect student-privacy rights. The legislation mirrors a similar measure approved by the Senate last week, and offers more protections than the Bush administration had initially proposed. The House measure (H.R. 2975) would require federal officials to get a judge's permission to view student records. In addition, those officials would have to indicate how the information would be used. The legislation also offers legal protection to students and institutions who open their records. Government officials would also have to provide "specific and credible facts" to gain permission to examine a students' records in an investigation. Like the Senate version, the House bill would allow only the U.S. attorney general -- or at least an assistant attorney general -- to request the records. The Bush administration initially would have allowed any employee within the Education or Justice Departments to review the records. University lobbyists worried that the administration's initial proposals were too broad and would allow the government to peer into students' financial records without proof of any connection to terrorist groups. The federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act bars colleges from releasing students' personal information unless those students give written permission. But the law allows exceptions, including a "health or safety emergency." Federal officials have contacted about 200 colleges to gain information on foreign students since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11. College officials have typically been providing information when authorities sought it. But institutional administrators have struggled with how to cooperate with law-enforcement agencies while protecting the privacy of students. The legislation should make it easier to satisfy both concerns, college lobbyists said. "We're completely satisfied with it," Becky Timmons, director of government relations for the American Council on Education, said of the legislation. "I think it will give a clear set of instructions to colleges, which is what they have been lacking." Background articles from The Chronicle: Lawmakers Add Student-Privacy Protections to Proposed Antiterrorism Legislation (10/12/2001) Colleges Largely Complying With Requests for Information on Foreign Students, Survey Finds (10/4/2001) Bush Antiterrorist Proposals Raise Concerns About Students' Privacy Rights (9/24/2001) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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