FERPA . note publishing statement .. last item on this one

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

An opinion issued by LeRoy S. Rooker, Director of the Family Policy
Compliance Office, U.S. Department of Education, stated:

[...]
        As you know, FERPA generally protects a student's privacy
        interests with regard to "education records."  "Education
        records" are defined as those records that are 1)
        directly related to a student and 2) maintained by an
        educational agency or institution or a party acting for
        the agency or institution.  34 CFR 99.3.  Accordingly,
        any records which are directly related to a student and
        are maintained by the University are education records
        subject to the provisions of FERPA.  Thus, there are no
        distinctions between undergraduate and graduate theses.
[...]
        This Office recognizes that undergraduate
        honors theses and graduate theses differ in nature from
        typical student research papers and other education
        records in that theses often become research sources
        themselves and are on occasion published.  As such, this
        Office would consider any written statement by a student
        permitting publication of a thesis sufficient consent
        under FERPA because such statement shows that the student
        intended the work to become publicly available.

Rooker told the ALA Washington Office that his office would not take
any action on this issue unless they receive a complaint.