Date: Sun, 09 Apr 2000 13:54:40 -0700 (PDT)

Date-warning: Date header was inserted by OREGON.UOREGON.EDU

From: Dave Frohnmayer <dfrohn@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU>

Subject: Re: University Responsiveness

To: Patrick Hurley <phurley@darkwing.uoregon.edu>
 

Dear Mr. Hurley: Thank you for copying me on your recent message to Dean Friestad. Let me give you a different perspective, which I hope you will find more supportive. There are many aspect of FERPA which we, as faculty and administrators find frustrating and bureaucratically annoying. This latest interpretation is one of them. We wish we could make it go away, because it complicates your lives, our lives and makes constructive communication more difficult. Regrettably, the federal law carries heavy penalties, including loss of federal funds (potentially). Probably the reason it was not discovered until recently was that no one thought that a practice which we thought to be emminently reasonable--direct communication--could be deemed unlawful. I know that this explanation goes against the modern grain( sometimes justified) to adopt conspiracy theories as explanations. In this case, I think it's just a dumb law interpretation.We wish it could go away, and are sorry for the inconvenience it causes.

Best regards, Dave Frohnmayer