October 17th, 2011
Published by: mooresb
University School Student Records In Jeopardy School Records in Jeopardy October 17th, 2011
OSU College of Education to reunited these records in the Archives.
After University School closed in 1967, FERPA, the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act became law. Under FERPA all information about students in American schools and universities came under strict rules governing copying, disclosure and access. Although University School records were all generated prior to the passage of FERPA, and therefore largely exempt, all records of The Ohio State University relating to student grades, progress reports and academic standing are covered. OSU Records are under the control of the University Registrar. No one at Ohio State today even knows there was a University School, where it was, what it did, or when it was closed. They have, however, in an abundance of caution, placed the University School records that remain in university custody under FERPA protection. Several months of negotiations with the Office of the Registrar failed to open the records for auditing and assessment of condition by former University School Director, Paul Klohr -- due to his not being a current employee of the university. Requests that the records be examined for their overall nature and content by University School historian, Robert Butche, resulted in limited access under a complex and burdensome set of rules that required direct oversight by the OSU Research Foundation, persons in the College of Education with no previous knowledge of the school, and as yet undefined restrictions on what could be used or published. University School records are not properly gathered together for historical study and analysis. Some or all of the original parent letters are in the OSU Archives, but not yet included in the University School Collection that AAUS has worked to expand significantly in recent years. Other records concerning students are in vertical files, sorted by student name and year of attendance. These records were stored for many years in the basement of Pomerene Hall, but, thanks to the efforts of Karmella Spears, have been relocated to Margaret Willis' former office on the third floor of the former University School. Requests have been made to both the OSU Archives and the 1