Tendai Musakwa Opinions Editor

How would you like it if every single administrator on campus could access your academic records? Or if the Office of Residential Life and the Learning and Teaching Center were to contact you to discuss ways to change your lifestyle in order to raise your gpa?

Situations like these are plausible at Vassar, considering the disproportionate number of people who can access students’ transcripts without permission from the student concerned. According to Registrar Dan Giannini, department chairs and secretaries, the Dean of Studies and his staff, the Dean of Students, the Director of Residential Life, the Associate Dean of the College, the Director of the Learning and Teaching Center, the Director of Disability and Support Services, the Director of International Students, the Director of Fellowships and Pre-Professional Advising, the Director of the African American/Black, Latino, Asian/Asian American and Native American (ALANA) Center and the Dean of Admissions all have unilateral access to students’ transcripts. This list is not exhaustive, as other people can access transcripts by getting permission from the heads of these offices.

The current situation leaves students with no control over what should be private academic information. Conversely, allowing independent access to students’ academic records gives even more power to administrators who already have profound influence over students’ lives and futures.

It is reasonable to ask how exactly the information contained within transcripts is used by the individuals who have access to them. I posed this question to Director of Residential Life Luis Inoa, who said that he checks transcripts to make sure student leaders are able to handle the additional strain on academics that comes from assuming leadership responsibilities. He also said that if there were a significant drop in a particular student leader’s gpa he would talk to the student in order to find a way of remedying this.

First, determining whether or not a certain student can handle a particular workload shows a complete disregard for the maturity and ability of college students to make decisions for themselves. In addition, the fact that the Office of Residential Life values the gpa of student leaders enough to have unilateral transcript access suggests that the higher a student’s academic standing, the more likely they are to be selected by the Office to be a student leader. This should not be the case, as leadership does not require specific intellectual abilities, but organizational and problem-solving skills.

You do not have to be a student leader for the Office of Residential Life to access your records, though: If you are involved in an “incident” or misconduct, the Office may look into your records to see if there is a correlation between your lifestyle and your academic standing. What they would do if they did find a correlation is highly suspect.

Equally ambiguous is the reason why some administrators such as the Director of the ALANA Center and Director of International Students have access to students’ transcripts. Giving these two offices the authority to access students’ transcripts suggests that academic performance at Vassar is in some way related to whether you are an international or minority student. Assuming that all students at Vassar are chosen for their intellectual capabilities, there is no reason to give these particular offices transcript access to supposedly cater to special academic needs of international or non-white students. This is discrimination of international and ALANA students and it ignores white U.S. students who do not have special offices catering to their academic needs. Furthermore, as an ALANA and international student, I can safely say that these offices do not cater to any academic issues.

Giving unilateral transcript access to these offices, ostensibly for them to determine when particular students need help with their academics, is patronizing and highly offensive. It implies that minority students have lower academic performance because of their minority status and that they require special assistance other than that provided by the Learning and Teaching Center in order to become academically on par with their white counterparts.

The fact that the Director of Fellowships and Pre-Professional advising can access transcripts is also troubling. The College must make clear what this office does with transcript information, in light of the fact that it is an advising office. If a student wants the office’s help with applications and the office needs more information on the student’s academic record, the office should ask the student for permission to do this. Additionally, does a student’s gpa affect what fellowships they receive? If so, shouldn’t a student know this beforehand and decide whether or not he or she wants these individuals to access this information?

The choice of who can access students’ transcripts should be the prerogative of students. It is very easy for a college to allow a multitude of people to unilaterally access transcripts under the legal framework of having “legitimate educational interest.” However, if the College were to recognize that students might not want to disclose the private and sensitive information contained in transcripts, even to those who supposedly want to help them, it would give more power over transcript access to students. Such a situation would mean removing the unilateral access to students’ transcript that is currently exercised by some administrators. Doing this would ensure transparency in the use of academic records and give students power over the information that most affects their futures.