AdvisingHandbook

Registrar

FERPA: Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

FERPA is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education. Schools may disclose, without consent, "directory" information such as a student's name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and awards, and dates of attendance. However, schools must tell parents and students about directory information and allow parents and students a reasonable amount of time to request that the school not disclose directory information about them. Schools must notify parents and students annually of their rights under FERPA. All incoming students are required to sign off on FERPA forms as a part of the new student registration. Students will scan a QR code and sign through Jotforms. That form (AR-FERPA-Student Disclosure) is electronically updated to CampusNexus/Anthology. Advisors will have access to see who the student has given permission for SMWC to speak to someone about the student’s record.

Advisors have already signed off on FERPA with Human Resources.

Transfer Credit Evaluation

The Registrar evaluates:

Credit for Prior Learning (CPL ) o

•

The Registrar provides the Transfer Credit Evaluation form to both the Advisor and the student. The Advisor can then use that form as a helpful checklist to determine what is still needed to complete a degree. It is important to have a discussion with the student about open electives. Sometimes, the student could transfer with a lot of extra elective credits towards their degree at SMWC. ▪ The student can opt to go ahead and use that elective transfer credit towards their required electives at SMWC. ▪ The student can opt to not use that transfer credit and opt to declare a minor, a double major, or fulfill graduate degree prerequisite(s). ▪ The Advisor will see on the Transfer Credit Evaluation form that under elective, it will say, for ex ample, “pending discussion - 25 hours”. It is crucial that the Advisor or the student communicates the decision of how many open electives the student wishes to be transferred in. Otherwise, the Registrar will leave the “pending” electives unevaluated until that communication happens.

Updated 8/18/22