Students are now able to grant faculty members temporary access to their academic transcripts using a new feature of WebCenter, Dean of Undergraduate Education James Glaser announced on Wednesday in an e-mail.
The new option comes in the wake of the implementation of a stricter access policy approved by the faculty last spring. Under that policy, the types of faculty and staff members who could see students' transcripts were significantly restricted.
"Once these policies were put into practice, it became apparent that there are instances where faculty members need access to transcripts of students who are not advisees," Glaser said in the e-mail, citing letters of recommendation as an example.
Now, students can grant permission to any faculty member or department administrator, who will then receive an e-mail when access is granted.
"Faculty were indicating that students asked them to do all sorts of letter writing, and to do that they need access to the transcripts, so our tech team here put a lot of hours in to make that possible," Glaser told the Daily.
The feature for temporary access became available briefly before the announcement was made, according to Glaser.
"We're proud of it because it allows students to maintain their privacy," Glaser said.
At the same time, it solves the problem of non-advisors who need access. "This is a win-win, for students and for faculty," he added
Temporary access given to a professor or administrator will be set to automatically expire after one year; however, students will have the option of changing the default time limit. Access to transcript information for students' advisors will remain the same as before.
Restricted faculty access to students' transcripts came about after concerns arose about privacy violations and questions about the legality of the university's former access policy.
Before the faculty voted last spring to limit transcript access to advisors, any faculty member who had ever served as an advisor was allowed unlimited access to the transcripts and confidential records of all students.
A primary motivation for the implementation of the stricter access policy was the concern that the former policy violated the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
Although the Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate was not involved in creating temporary transcript access for faculty, TCU President Duncan Pickard called the change "a service" to faculty and students.
"It's definitely within the parameters of my understanding of the law -- of FERPA -- and it's something that is more convenient for students and faculty members," Pickard, a junior, said.
Ben Gittleson contributed reporting to this article.
