Tuition Payment Doesn’t Buy
All-Access Pass for Parents
Parents of first-year students often parents unless the student has waived
are shocked to discover that, while FERPA rights in advance.
they may pay the tuition bills, they During orientation, UNC’s academic
don’t get automatic access to their child’s advising office gives students a FERPA
grades, class schedules or financial records. waiver form, which they can sign if they
As are all universities that receive funding choose. A parent can access grades, one
through the U.S. Department of Educa- semester at a time, if he or she sends the
tion, UNC is bound by the Family Edu- registrar’s office a form certifying that
cational Rights and Privacy Act, a 1974 the student is a dependent. If students
law that restricts the information the are willing to lay it all on the line, they
University can release about a student can share with parents the identification
without his or he r prior written consent. number and access
FERPA also prevents professors and code that gives
University officials from discussing, for access to grades,
instance, a student’s billing informa-academic struggles tion, class sched-or mental ules and more
health with online.
Over-involved parents can hamper their
high schoolers’ chances of a spot on Carolina athletic teams, said Jenny Levy,
UNC’s head women’s lacrosse coach. “We
can handpick most of our kids,” she said.
“We’re really looking for an independent
high school kid. When we meet, we pay
attention to who does the talking, the student or Mom and Dad. We had a situation
where I was e-mailing back and forth with
what I thought was the kid, and I found
out through the high school club coach it
was the mom. We stopped recruiting right
there. We dropped the kid from recruitment.”
Self-determination is critical on an athletics team, Levy said. “If you have kids on
the field who don’t take responsibility for
themselves and their actions, one, they
don’t develop into the player they can, and
two, they’re not a good team player.”
Despite careful screening, she has
encountered parents who try to weigh in
on coaching decisions, a situation she tries
to nip in the bud. At the beginning of the
school year, Levy lays out what are appropriate parameters for new parents, and she
