Editorial
Arizona Daily Wildcat
October 1, 1997

Campus safety cannot take a back seat to bureaucratic politics.

In the last two weeks, two violent crimes - an alleged suicide and an alleged rape - have taken place on or near campus. In the alleged suicide, a gun was involved, on campus, a violation of the Weapon-Free Zone. The Tucson Police Department said that it was investigating the alleged rape at an apartment complex just north of campus. University students were involved in each incident.

It seems that campus safety is now in question.

The Dean of Students' Office has refused to comment on the alleged rape, citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the so-called "Buckley Amendment." Alexis Hernandez, associate dean of students, said, "Once we're looking into a case then we can't talk about it at all. We can't even verify that we're looking into it."

Not quite.

FERPA was designed to stop unrestrained release of student records and to allow students and their families access to their educational records. The relevant wording is "information directly related to a student." Such information may not be released at random.

Congress, however, explicitly struck "law enforcement unit records" from FERPA's confidentiality requirements in 1992. That was five years ago.

This year, the Ohio Supreme Court, citing an earlier case in Georgia, ruled that Miami University of Ohio did not have the right to withhold "university disciplinary records" since these are not "'education records' as defined in FERPA."

But the University of Arizona - like many other universities - still hides behind FERPA in most disciplinary matters.

Rape is a criminal act that should not be associated with educational records.

This is sexual assault. It is violent, degrading and dangerous. In the interest of public safety, the dean of students office should at least admit that it is looking into the issue.

Rape is an issue of public concern; something about which the campus must know. The Wildcat is a major source for disseminating information to the campus community. To deny the public knowledge of this incident - even confirmation of this incident - perpetrates a veil of silence that can be extremely dangerous.

Inevitably, there is the question of the public's right to know. These are sensitive issues and the Wildcat should - and does - show ethical restraint with regards to the victims. In these cases, the names of rape victims are not released as a matter of course.

However, information about violent incidents involving students should be available to the campus community. That the dean, and the University, choose to hide these matters is socially and morally irresponsible.

Even with the best intentions, the dean of students is violating the spirit, if not the letter, of the law. The Buckley Amendment is not intended to mask criminal proceedings; it is designed to protect educational privacy. Period. Criminal conduct such as rape does not fall under educational records.