Revisions in the Education Department's federal student privacy law, issued last Thursday, now give colleges the right to disclose the results of criminal proceedings against students accused of violent crimes.
And schools can also notify parents of those students under 21 if they are caught drinking or using drugs.
The rules clarify and refine changes to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act passed by Congress in 1998.
Published in the Federal Register, the updated regulations don't really drastically change what Congress originally enacted in 1998, Office of Student Conduct Director Michelle Goldfarb said.
"It really didn't add or subtract anything," she explained.
The Education Department's changes follow up on a year of comment -- from last June until the issuing of the regulations -- that allowed people to respond to, question and comment on the 1998 congressional changes.
The new rules also allow colleges to release a student's educational records to a court -- without the consent of the students.
However, the University has yet to develop a policy regarding the release of the names of student perpetrators. Currently, both student disciplinary proceedings that go before the OSC and a student's criminal record are kept confidential.
Penn charged a 10-member committee -- chaired by College of Arts and Sciences Dean Richard Beeman -- to develop an appropriate policy for the University.
According to Goldfarb, now that the Education Department has clarified and updated the 1998 law, it will be easier for the committee to resume discussions. She added that the committee had several questions that it needed answered before it could progress.
Goldfarb estimated that some of the committee's members may start meeting during the remaing summer weeks, but that the committe wouldn't meet again in full force until after Labor Day. She said she hoped that committee would have a proposal sometime in the near future.
"The timing of this will be accelerated," she said. "We're trying to put it together soon."
Following the initial passing of the legislation in 1998, Penn convened a committee to develop a parental notification policy at the University. Under the policy, implemented last fall, parents of students with previous or significant drug- or alcohol-related violations will be notified by the school.
But, according to Goldfarb, the school has yet to contact any parents under the auspices of the policy.
"The truth is, we haven't had to invoke it," she said.
Goldfarb also said the University's policy won't need to be updated with the changes issued last week.
"The federal regulations haven't really changed anything," she said. "None of [the changes] applies to us."
Goldfarb added that at times her office had spoken with parents about a student's drug or alcohol use -- but only after the student had asked their parents to contact the OSC.
However, she said that she does expect that the University will have to invoke the parental notification policy at some point in the future.
"My guess is it will come up," she said. "We really have a policy that calls for discretion, though. It's not automatic."
"It was never meant to be punitive" she added of the policy.
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