The University of Maine Orono violated nearly 1,000 students’ privacy under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy act with a single email on Monday, according to an expert.
The email sent from Orono’s Student Accessibility Services, meant to be sent to students via a blind copy, revealed all of the university-assigned email addresses of the 986 students who receive services on campus.
Student Accessibility Services provide accommodations for students with varying disabilities including learning disabilities, physical disabilities and mental health diagnoses. The students included in the email did not have their disability revealed.
The university said the disclosure of student emails was not a FERPA violation, but the way the email was sent to include all the student email addresses is not UMaine’s “standard practice,” Director of News and Media Relations Marcus Wolf said.
Revealing student emails is not a FERPA violation by itself, but the emails being linked to the personal information that the students receive services is, said LeRoy Rooker, a senior fellow at the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, who provides training in how to comply with FERPA.
“I’m sure a lot of people [on the email] didn’t want this information out there,” Rooker said.
A UMaine student on the email, who asked not to be identified, said they didn’t want it to be known they had a disability and thought other students on the email wouldn’t either.
“From knowing other disabled students on campus, some people do not feel comfortable having their disability status, or their status of accommodation if they don’t consider themselves to be disabled, to be public or be known by their friend, employer or anyone else they know,” the student said.
The email was sent by Erica Tweedie, director of Student Accessibility Services, and included information about the services team being fully staffed and other back-to-school updates. This is Tweedie’s first semester as director, according to a Student Accessibility Services Instagram post.
A violation of the policy can lead to an investigation of the offense if a student files a complaint with the Student Privacy Policy Office with the Department of Education. The office would then determine if the university violated FERPA.
If found to not be in compliance the Department of Education may withhold funding or future eligibility for funding to the program found in violation, according to the act.
