FERPA

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. Utah State University is prohibited from releasing certain personally identifiable information from a student’s record to a third party (parent, spouse, etc.) without the student’s explicit consent. This law provides that (1) students will have access to inspect and review their educational records and protects the rights of a student to privacy by limiting access to the educational record without express written consent. As a new GI you will be expected to complete a FERPA Training that all new employees of the University are required to do. You must complete that training before you can start your first day of teaching.

Mandatory Reporting

Some university employees are designated as reporting employees, which means they must report all information they receive about sexual misconduct to the USU Title IX Coordinator. As a GI, you are one of these reporting employees. If an individual discloses an incident of sexual misconduct to you, follow these steps:

• Inform
  • Inform the individual as soon as possible that if they share information about sexual misconduct with you, whether it happened at USU or previously, you must report it to the USU Title IX Coordinator. Tell them that they will be contacted with information about support services and reporting options.
  • If the individual isn’t comfortable disclosing given your reporting obligations, be sure to tell them about the Designated Confidential Resources listed on sexualrespect.usu.edu and inform them about how to file a report with the USU Title IX Coordinator at equity.usu.edu/report. Explain that the individual may request that their name not be shared with the respondent, and the Title IX Coordinator will explain if that request can be honored.
• Listen
  • Listen without judgment if the individual still wants to discuss their experience with you. Respond with compassion and express your support, but avoid questioning their experience or asking questions to learn more about what happened.
• Review
  • Review the support services and reporting options listed at sexualrespect.usu.edu
• Report
  • Report all of the information related to the disclosure at equity.usu.edu/report within 24 hours.
  • If an individual is in immediate physical danger, you must call 911.

*If you have questions or concerns about reporting, please contact the USU Title IX Coordinator by emailing titleix@usu.edu or by calling 435-797-1266. If you’d like additional information about your reporting obligations as an employee of the University, check out this page on the Office of Equity’s website.

Sexual Harassment Prevention Training

You must complete two types of training as a GI: Student Sexual Misconduct Prevention Training and Employee Sexual Misconduct (Title IX) Training.

Student Sexual Misconduct Prevention Training

• Incoming students – including first-year undergraduate students, students returning from a leave of absence, transfer students, and first-year graduate students – are required to complete the sexual misconduct prevention training during their first semester at USU.
• The sexual misconduct prevention training is provided in-person for incoming students at residential campuses (Blanding, Eastern, and Logan campuses) and online for incoming students at Statewide campuses and for online-only incoming students.
• The in-person trainings for incoming students at residential campuses will be approximately 90 minutes long. The content of the training will be tailored for the following student demographics: graduate students, undergraduate students over 25 years old, and undergraduate students under 25 years old. Audience sizes are limited so you will need to RSVP for a training session at least 24 hours in advance.
• If you do not receive an email about how to register for a session, please contact prevention@usu.edu. In the email, include your name, A#, campus location, and whether you are an undergraduate or graduate student.
• Questions about the student sexual misconduct prevention training requirements can be directed to prevention@usu.edu.

Employee Sexual Misconduct (Title IX) Training

• All full-time and some part-time employees must complete a sexual misconduct (Title IX) training within 60 days of when they are a new employee and then again every year. The training’s content is based on an employee’s designation as either a reporting employee, designated confidential resource, or non-designated employee.
• The employee sexual misconduct (Title IX) trainings empower employees by teaching them how to recognize sexual misconduct behaviors, their obligations related to addressing sexual misconduct behaviors, how to respond to a sexual misconduct disclosure, and university and community support resources and reporting options.
• As a reporting employee you will view the new DCR and RE training schedule, and then sign up for a training session in the ILS to access in-person location information and Zoom links. For help signing up for a session, view the sexual misconduct (Title IX) ILS session RSVP guide.
• Questions about the employee sexual misconduct (Title IX) training requirements can be directed to the Office of Equity’s Prevention Team at prevention@usu.edu.