The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a Federal law enacted in 1974 that protects the privacy of students. Under this Act, students have the right to inspect and review their education records and have the right to challenge records when they are inaccurate, misleading or otherwise in violation of the student’s privacy rights.

The University of Maine at Farmington has designated certain information contained in the education records of its students as directory information for purposes of FERPA. Such directory information may be publicly shared by the University unless the student has taken formal action to restrict its release.

Directory information includes: name, address, telephone, date and place of birth, program of study, dates of attendance, enrollment status (full or part-time), degrees and awards received, most recent previous educational institution attended, participation in sports and activities, and appropriate personal athletic statistical data.

Again, students may request that their directory information not be released at any time while they are an enrolled student at UMF. To do this, students must submit a Request to Suppress Directory Information form to the UMF Merrill Center.

See our confidentiality, privacy and FERPA disclosure policy in full (pdf)