[366] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Disciplinary hearing openness
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Christopher D. Beland)
Mon Apr 30 23:00:21 2001
Message-Id: <200105010258.WAA25418@Press-Your-Luck.mit.edu>
To: Ray Jones <rjones@pobox.com>
cc: mit-talk@MIT.EDU
In-reply-to: The events that comprise the history of the universe.
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2001 22:58:31 -0400
From: "Christopher D. Beland" <beland@MIT.EDU>
> > Changing this reality requires lobbying both the MIT administration
> > and the United States Congress.
>
> Probably only the former. Since MIT is a private institution, it
> isn't subject to "sunshine laws" that have been successfully applied
> to disciplinary hearings at state schools. However, if students were
> to apply sufficient pressure, they could probably convince the
> administration to (re)instate due process guarantees currently
> lacking.
I'm not a lawyer, nor am I an expert in this area of law.
It appears that 34 CFR 99.31 allows state law to override a federal
law (FERPA) which otherwise prevents disclosure of disciplinary
records (with minor exceptions for emergencies, reporting purposes,
sexual assault, parental notification, and alcohol and drug
enforcement).
As far as I know, there are no laws in Massachusetts which explicitly
permit the release of disciplinary hearing records.
I have to ask the question, then, is MIT *allowed* to open its
disciplinary hearings if it is not allowed to disclose records of
those hearings? If not, a changed in either federal or state law
would seem to be necessary to enable that.
-B.
---
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act may be found at:
20 USC (United States Code) 1232g
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/20/1232g.html
US DOE regulations implementing FERPA may be found in:
34 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) Part 99
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/cfr/34p99.htm
An article describing a federal court ruling that "disciplinary
records" are "educational records" not "law enforcement records" and
are thus not publicly available:
http://www.umass.edu/journal/450/privacy/ferpa_ohio.html
Exceptions include releasing the name of the perputrators, type of
offense, and the sanctions imposed:
http://campussafety.org/news/pr/07072000.html
