Release of Personal Information

Summary

Your Cornell-related personal, academic, and financial records are protected by federal law via the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

FERPA gives you the following rights:

  • to inspect and review your own education records;
  • to consent to disclosures of personally identifiable information contained in your education records;
  • to ask to have your education records corrected if you believe them to be inaccurate, misleading, or in violation of their privacy rights and, if necessary, to have a hearing on this issue;
  • to file with the U.S. Department of Education a complaint concerning alleged failures by Cornell University to comply with the requirements of FERPA.

Some directory information may be released by the university without a student’s consent. This includes name, local and cell phone numbers, email address, photograph, major field of study and college attended, academic level, dates of attendance, enrollment status, university assistantship status, and degrees awarded. Address information is not publicly available.

You may restrict the release of this information by updating the privacy settings in Student Center.

Note: Although you may restrict the release of your personal information by choosing more restrictive privacy settings, non-Cornell individuals and organizations may be able to find your address or phone number by searching online or using public sources like voter rolls. Remember to protect your personal information online and outside Cornell. 

In Depth

Cornell’s Policy on Access to Student Records stipulates the conditions under which records can be released as well as when you may inspect your own records.

Under certain conditions, your information may be disclosed, including:

  1. Directory information (name, cell phone number, field of study, etc.) may be disclosed unless you indicate that it should not be. For a list of the items that Cornell University treats as directory information, and for instructions on how students may prevent the release of their directory information, see the Student Record Privacy Statement: Annual Notification Under FERPA. Directory information may be released unless you indicate otherwise in your privacy settings through Student Center
  2. A university official with a legitimate interest in this information, as defined in the Student Record Privacy Statement: Annual Notification Under FERPA may access your information.
  3. Appropriate parties in a health or safety emergency may access your information if knowledge of this information is necessary to protect the health and safety of you or other individuals. See the FAQ.
  4. Consistent with FERPA, information from education records may be released to parents and others who need to know in certain limited circumstances, more fully outlined in the Student Record Privacy Statement: Annual Notification Under FERPA.

This policy gives you the right to inspect your own records via written request to the University Registrar, and the right to correct any inaccurate records. 

Related

Contact

Graduate School Registrar
gradstudserv@cornell.edu