The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) works to maintain your privacy as a student. With that, you may need to access or amend your records, review how the FERPA discloses personal identifiable information, or find out how to file a complaint.

Learn more about:

Annual Notice to Students

Annually, New York University informs students of their rights under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the regulations relating to FERPA promulgated by the Department of Education.

Together, FERPA and the FERPA regulations provide that:

  • Each student has a right to inspect and review their education records.
  • Each student may request that any such record be amended if they believe that it is inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise in violation of their privacy.
  • The University will obtain the student’s written consent prior to disclosing personally identifiable information about the student from their education records, unless such consent is not required by FERPA and the FERPA regulations.
  • Each student has a right to file a complaint with the Family Policy Compliance Office of the Department of Education if they feel the University has failed to comply with the requirements of FERPA and the FERPA regulations.
  • Each student may obtain a copy of the University’s Guidelines for Compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.

The guidelines are available in the University’s FERPA Guidelines. 

Access to Records

To request to review your records, for copies of the statute or its attendant regulations, or for additional information concerning FERPA, you should contact the Office of the Registrar. 

However, records related to Graduate Division of the Stern School of Business, the College of Dentistry, the School of Law, the School of Medicine, NYU Abu Dhabi, or NYU Shanghai, must be requested through those schools.

Please contact the following people according to your related school:

Graduate Division of the Stern School of Business
David Gordon, Director of Student Records
44 West Fourth St., Room 6-65

Grossman School of Medicine
Lori M. Andrade
Director, Office of Registration/Student Records
Medical Science Building, Suite G90

Long Island School of Medicine
Deirdre Apicello
Director of Medical Education, Registration and Student Records
101 Mineola Blvd. Mineola, NY

College of Dentistry
Leslie F. Smithey
Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs
345 East 24th St., 10th Fl West

School of Law
Michelle L. Kirkland
Assistant Dean for Academic Services and Registration
Furman Hall, Room 474

NYU Abu Dhabi
Paul Revere
Registrar
nyuad.registrar@nyu.edu

NYU Shanghai
Winnie Wilson, Registrar

Global Network Sites
Students should contact the appropriate FERPA officer of their home campus

If you wish to review your record, you must complete a record request form from the Office of the Registrar or from the appropriate school record review officer listed above.

For requests directed to the Office of the Registrar, contact the Office of the University Registrar by email at FERPA@nyu.edu for information on how to obtain and submit the record request form.

Your request should specify what records are to be inspected.

You will be notified when the records are available for inspection.

Amendment of Records

You may ask the university to correct or delete information in your education records that is inaccurate, misleading, or in violation of your rights to privacy. You may also ask that additional explanatory material be inserted in the record.

Requests for amendment of a record or the addition of explanatory material should be submitted at the conclusion of the record review.

The reasons for the request should be set forth on the form and should clearly identify the part of the record the student wants changed and specify why it is inaccurate or misleading.

There is no obligation on the part of the University to grant such a request. If the University declines to amend the records as requested by the student, it will so inform the student, and the student may request a hearing.

The right to challenge the contents of an educational record may not be used to question substantive educational judgments that have been correctly recorded. For example, a hearing may not be requested to contest the assignment of a grade.

Grades given in the course of study include written evaluations that reflect institutional judgment of the quality of a student’s academic performance. Information concerning hearing procedures is outlined in the University’s FERPA Guidelines.

Disclosure of Personally Identifiable Information

FERPA authorizes the disclosure of directory information or for disclosure to school officials with a legitimate educational interest in access to your educational record without prior consent from you. 

School officials having a legitimate educational interest include:

  • Any university employee acting within the scope of their University employment
  • Any duly appointed agent or representative of the University acting within the scope of their appointment

We may also, at our sole discretion, forward education records to the officials of another institution:

  • In which a student seeks or intends to enroll if that institution requests such records
  • If the student is enrolled in, or is receiving services from, that institution while she or he is attending NY

You can read about other exceptions in the University’s Guidelines for Compliance with FERPA.

An amendment to FERPA regulations which lists those instances where students personally identifiable information may be released without the student's prior consent clarifies that, among others, this exception includes release in connection with state-wide longitudinal data systems.

Notice Designating Directory Information

The University has designated the following student information as "directory information."  Directory information may be disclosed for any purpose, at the discretion of the University, except as provided below.

Name, dates of attendance, NYU school or college, class, previous institution(s) attended, major field of study, full or part-time status, degree(s) conferred (including dates), honors and awards (including dean's list), past and present participation in officially recognized activities (including positions held and official statistics related to such participation and performance), e-mail address and NetID. [Important. See notes (1) and (2) below.]

(1) E-mail address and NetID are directory information for appropriate internal purposes only.  

(2) In addition, under federal law, physical mailing address, electronic mailing address, telephone listings, and age are also considered directory information for military recruitment purposes.  

If you care a currently enrolled student, you may refuse to permit disclosure of this information.

Students enrolled in the College of Dentistry, School of Law, School of Medicine, or Stern School of Business—Graduate Division, NYU Abu Dhabi, or NYU Shanghai should complete the nondisclosure form available in the Recording Office of the school in which he or she is enrolled. Students in these schools will be informed if they must file a new nondisclosure form each academic year.

To refuse disclosure, all other students should follow these steps:

  • Complete a form requesting nondisclosure at a StudentLink Center.
  • A hold will be placed on the release of directory information filed with the University Registrar. This hold remains in effect until you file a written request to remove it.

If a student does not specifically request the withholding of directory information by filing the appropriate University form, as indicated above, the University assumes that he or she approves of the disclosure of such information. The University disclaims any and all liability for inadvertent disclosure of directory information designated to be withheld.

Complaints

If you believe there has been a violation of the provisions of FERPA, you may file a complaint with:

Family Policy Compliance Office
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, S.W.
Washington, DC 20202-5920

Complaints must contain specific allegations of fact giving reasonable cause to believe that a violation of FERPA has occurred.