A growing number of Tufts students are granting their parents access to their personal information on My Jumbo, a feature of WebCenter for Parents that was introduced last spring.
Around two weeks after its April 13 launch, around 400 students had signed up 700 parents to use the site. Currently, there are around 1,000 students and 1,800 parents using it.
There are plans in the works to increase usage. "We are currently focusing on increasing awareness and learning what we can from initial usage of the site," Associate Director of Arts and Sciences Information Technology Andrew Sonnenschein said.
Without being registered for My Jumbo, parents can still access general academic, financial, administrative and calendar information on the WebCenter for Parents site. But if registered, they can also see information about their children's bursar's accounts, schedules and grades.
They cannot view this information without permission because the 1974 Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) restricts their access to it.
As parents become increasingly involved in their children's lives, this restriction has become something that almost all colleges have been grappling with.
"There's certainly a trend for parents wanting to know things," Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman said. This is evident at Tufts, he said, because each year more parents request information about their students.
Dean of Student Services Paul Stanton agreed. "Parents are more and more interested in their son or daughter's educational experience," he said.
This concern has also veered off into the arena of student safety, particularly after April's Virginia Tech massacre. My Jumbo could help alleviate some of these worries, as registered parents can be contacted in the event of a campus-wide emergency.
At many schools, these parental preoccupations have prompted officials to offer privacy waivers.
While My Jumbo is not the only way Tufts students can grant their parents access to information, it does serve as such a waiver.
"It is in essence an electronic waiving of FERPA protection," Reitman said.
As with My Jumbo at Tufts, not all students opt to give their parents access to information at other schools.
For example, when Temple University offered an online waiver to students last year, only around 5,000 out of 23,000 signed one, according to a recent Wall Street Journal article.
So even in the face of parental concern, whether or not to sign family members up still remains an individual decision for each student.
Freshman Eric Fournier has not registered his parents.
"Honestly, I don't have a problem telling my grades to my parents," he said, "but I just prefer to retain full control over my information."
-Sarah Butrymowicz contributed reporting to this article.
