If you are a student, international or domestic, your personal and academic information is generally protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, commonly called FERPA. Under that law, any university that receives federal funds for educational programs must agree to keep information about students confidential. Duke must advise you each year of your rights under FERPA and of the information we generally make publicly available. You can find the Duke FERPA notice at http://registrar.duke.edu/registrar/release.htm.

The law has certain exceptions and special provisions written into it.

Schools may share "directory" information, that is the usual information that anyone could look up in the school directory – look in the Duke telephone directory to see what information is listed there about students. The law also lists "date and place of birth" as "directory" information, but note that Duke has chosen not to publish that information. The law is even more protective than it may seem at first. For example, imagine that someone asks for a list of all students from country X and their names and addresses. Names and addresses are in the directory, but country is not. By making the list, we would be revealing information (country) that is not in the directory, so we would not generally give out such a list to a non-Duke office or group.
Schools may release information to appropriate authorities in an emergency or to protect the health or safety of the student or others.
Schools may share information requested by appropriate authorities for legal purposes. For example, it may share financial and academic information with the Department of Education on a US citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR) who applies for or receives certain kinds of government loans.
Schools must release information requested in a subpoena. A subpoena is a legal order by a judge directing a person or organization to appear in person or present certain documents or information. Usually an institution must comply with a subpoena, though it may attempt to have the subpoena stopped or amended.
The Department of Education and Duke University take these exceptions seriously. Any release of information at Duke must first be cleared through a procedure set up by the Office of the Provost. The Provost may, as necessary, convene a committee to review, revise, and reconfirm those procedures and to make the Duke community aware of the policies.

In order to have the authority to issue F and J visa documents, a school must agree to abide by certain regulations and to keep and report certain information to DHS and to DOS. If you have F or J status on a document issued by Duke, then Duke must abide by this agreement in regard to information about you.

Duke, like all other schools with authority to issue Forms I-20 for F-1 and F-2 status or Forms DS-2019 for J-1 and J-2 status, must keep and report information in several ways. Look at your I-20 or DS-2019. Duke had to enter of all of that data into the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) database in order to produce your I-20 or DS-2019 out of that system. DHS has all of the information on those documents, and DHS or DOS may ask us to update or reconfirm that information at any time. We normally do that each time we issue a new document. By issuing new documents we confirm such items as: you are still in school or still engaged in teaching or research; your funding is available; you are transferring; you are extending your stay; you have advanced from an undergraduate to a graduate program; you have changed your field of study; or you are bringing in family members.

We authorize benefits for you and must notify DHS or DOS that we have done so. The most common benefit is work authorization in the form of Curricular Practical Training (CPT), Optional Practical Training (OPT), or Academic Training (AT).
We must keep records of when you drop below full course load or full-time activity or when you terminate from school or terminate your teaching or research. We must report these events to DHS either when the event occurs or when asked by DHS or DOS. In most cases the termination is a simple graduation or completion of your teaching or research program. Sometimes students or scholars need to take a reduced schedule or short leave of absence for medical or other reasonable purposes. We have the authority, under our agreements with DHS and DOS, to permit such variations from full-time activity and still allow you to maintain your student or scholar status without interruption, provided you obtain permission from the International Office in advance. Maintaining your status in this way preserves your eligibility for benefits such as CPT, OPT or AT.
We must provide any information specified in a subpoena, even if it is information we might not normally provide. As mentioned in Q1, such events are rare and are first referred to University Counsel.

If you have F status –

The law in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) at INA Section 101(a)(15)(F) requires us to ensure that you carry a full course of study and to report your termination from the program.

The regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) specify more detailed reporting. Here is the language from Title 8 of the CFR.

8 CFR 214.3

"(g) Recordkeeping and reporting requirements –

(1) Recordkeeping requirements. An approved school must keep records containing certain specific information and documents relating to each F-1 or M-1 student to whom it has issued a Form I-20A or I-20M while the student is attending the school and until the school notifies the Service, in accordance with the requirements of paragraph (g)(2) of this section, that the student is not pursuing a full course of study. The school must keep a record of having complied with the reporting requirements for at least one year. If a student who is out of status is restored to status, the school the student is attending is responsible for maintaining these records following receipt of notification from the Service that the student has been restored to status. The designated school official must make the information and documents required by this paragraph available to and furnish them to any Service officer upon request. The information and documents which the school must keep on each student are as follows:

(i) Name.

(ii) Date and place of birth.

(iii) Country of citizenship.

(iv) Current address where the student and his or her dependents physically reside. In the event the student or his or her dependents reside on or off campus and cannot receive mail at that location, the school may provide a mailing address. The school, however, must maintain a record of the physical location of residence of the student and his or her dependents and provide such information to the Service upon request. Once SEVIS is modified, in cases where the mailing and physical address are not the same, the school will be required to report both the student's current mailing and current physical address in SEVIS.

(v) The student's current academic status.

(vi) Date of commencement of studies.

(vii) Degree program and field of study.

(viii) Whether the student has been certified for practical training, and the beginning and end dates of certification.

(ix) Termination date and reason, if known.

(x) The documents referred to in paragraph (k) of this section. [Duke Note: Paragraph ‘k’ documents are the basic academic and financial documents that we used to determine that you were eligible for admission and that you had adequate funds.]

(xi) The number of credits completed each semester.

(xii) A photocopy of the student's I-20 ID Copy.

A Service officer may request any or all of the above data on any individual student or class of students upon notice. This notice will be in writing if requested by the school. The school will have three work days to respond to any request for information concerning an individual student, and ten work days to respond to any request for information concerning a class of students. If the Service requests information on a student who is being held in custody, the school will respond orally on the same day the request for information is made, and the Service will provide a written notification that the request was made after the fact, if the school so desires. The Service will first attempt to gain information concerning a class of students from the Service's record system.

(2) [Duke Note: Item 2 describes reporting before implementation of the SEVIS system. This section is now obsolete and is not included here.]

(3) SEVIS reporting requirements.

(i) Within 21 days of a change in any of the information contained in paragraph (e)(3) of this section, schools must update SEVIS with the current information.

[Duke Note: paragraph ‘(e)(3)’ refers to changes in the name, address, or status of the school. For example, if a college gains university status, it must report that change to DHS through SEVIS.]

(ii) Schools are also required to report within 21 days of the occurrence the following events:

(A) Any student who has failed to maintain status or complete his or her program;

(B) A change of the student's or dependent's legal name or U.S. address;

(C) Any student who has graduated early or prior to the program end date listed on SEVIS Form I-20;

(D) Any disciplinary action taken by the school against the student as a result of the student being convicted of a crime; and

(E) Any other notification request made by SEVIS with respect to the current status of the student.

(iii) Each term or session and no later than 30 days after the deadline for registering for classes, schools are required to report the following registration information:

(A) Whether the student has enrolled at the school, dropped below a full course of study without prior authorization by the DSO, or failed to enroll;

(B) The current address of each enrolled student; and

(C) The start date of the student's next session, term, semester, trimester, or quarter.

(4) Administrative correction of a student's record. In instances where technological or computer problems on the part of SEVIS cause an error in the student's record, the DSO may request the SEVIS system administrator, without fee, to administratively correct the student's record."

For J-1 students we must report basically the same information into the same SEVIS database.

For J-1 scholars we use SEVIS to report and update the information on the DS-2019 plus any changes in program activities such as additional work at another location inside the U.S., extensions of stay, transfers, and so on.

For F status we report to the DHS. For J status we report to DHS and to DOS. For all international students we report a numeric count, not individual names, to the Department of Education. Under certain conditions government agencies may share their information with other agencies as provided for under the law. Sharing information may seem to be an obvious power of government agencies, but under U.S. law, authority to share information cannot always be assumed. Congress has given specific authority for agencies to share information regarding immigration matters.

INA Section 105 reads, in part,

Commissioner and the Administrator shall have authority to maintain direct and continuous liaison with the Directors of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency and with other internal security officers of the Government for the purpose of obtaining and exchanging information for use in enforcing the provisions of this Act in the interest of the internal and border security of the United States. The Commissioner and the Administrator shall maintain direct and continuous liaison with each other with a view to a coordinated, uniform, and efficient administration of this Act, and all other immigration and nationality laws."

Not exactly. All the rules mentioned above apply to those in F and J status. Duke has a responsibility to report information based on our agreements that permit us to operate F and J programs.

If you are not in F or J status, then you are not part of the SEVIS reporting, even though you may be enrolled in school or engaged in teaching or research. If you are enrolled in school then the FERPA rules generally protect your information.

If you are an employee, not enrolled in school, then various Department of Labor and general privacy laws protect your information. Employee information, like student information, is subject to subpoena.

If you are both enrolled in school and an employee, then the respective reporting rules apply to each part of your relationship to Duke. For example, FERPA may protect your academic information, but has no affect on your employment information.