School excuses and impersonators

[kirk2010]

Dear Students and Parents... unless you participate in an officially sanctioned admissions event such as a tour or a program or a class shadow, you will not be able to get an excuse from school!

No, visiting your friend in his dorm and hanging out with him for the day does not count.

Neither does visiting your sisters class and chatting with the professor.

No, Dad, it doesn't member which alumni chapter board you sit on, you cannot get an excuse for your daughter if she didn't take an official tour.

Bottom line, unless your ass is in one of my seats and your name is on one of my roster, you aren't getting a school-excuse from us.

===

Dear Mom and Dad... please do not call us and impersonate your son or daughter and try to trick us into releasing information that is protected by Federal Law. We've gotten pretty good at determining if a 40 year old is trying to sound like a 17 year old. It doesn't matter if you filled their application out for them (that gets a big FAIL from us), and it sure doesn't matter if you can give us their DOB, SSN, middle name, and know their account info and password.

If we suspect you are not who you say you are, your account gets locked, period. We don't lock you out, but we place a million flags all over the record instructing everyone to not give out any information over the phone. You can wait for the letter to come in two weeks and open your student's letter (Federal Law violation #2).

kthxbai

[Mnemjian]

We've gotten pretty good at determining if a 40 year old is trying to sound like a 17 year old.

You mean liberally sprinkling their sentences with "like" and "omigawd" doesn't work?


/durn kids and their crazy words! *shakes fist*

[jedimaster91]

Out of curiosity, does your school have some sort of release form that the student can sign that would allow their parents to have access to their records? Just wondering.

[trailerparkmedic]

Out of curiosity, does your school have some sort of release form that the student can sign that would allow their parents to have access to their records? Just wondering.

My little sister's school had something like that. She kept delaying signing anything until she realized she needed to sign it to allow my mom to pay her tution. The paper got signed very quickly after that

I think my current school has something similar as well, since I had to sign some papers to allow one department to see records from another

But, really, parents need to let go at some point. Your kids are adults now, and they need to learn to behave like one at some point.

[EvilEmpryss]

Out of curiosity, does your school have some sort of release form that the student can sign that would allow their parents to have access to their records? Just wondering.

In the States its called FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act): you'll probably need a separate one for financial aid, the registrar, and admissions offices. I can tell you, though, that even if you've filled one out for every single possible office on the campus, *someone* will not want to release information to you because they don't think they have the authority to do so or can't find the form you turned in. *sigh*

I handle all of the enrollment and financial aid issues for my hubby. I figure as a grad student, he's working hard enough, the least I can do is keep him from having headaches over FAFSA deadlines and finding classes that still have seats open. Some of the offices know me by name at this point and don't bother to check for the FERPA. Every now and then, though, a new person pops in, and I have to explain the FERPA to them and make them go look it up to prove I can discuss my hubby's tuition. Sheesh, HIPAA isn't that bad.

[jackfaire]

My little sister's school had something like that. She kept delaying signing anything until she realized she needed to sign it to allow my mom to pay her tution. The paper got signed very quickly after that

I think my current school has something similar as well, since I had to sign some papers to allow one department to see records from another

But, really, parents need to let go at some point. Your kids are adults now, and they need to learn to behave like one at some point.

I do customer service for a utility company and in our service district are quite a few colleges with campus housing. The law says we have to speak directly to the person requesting service to put it in their name so we get parents who are obviously impersonating their kids.


I look at this and I wonder how many of those kids are going to actually succeed in college when their parents do everything for them.

[kirk2010]

FERPA Waivers are usually handled by our Registrar's office, but they are only for students who get enrolled and such, so they only get signed at Orientation. We don't really offer that option for prospective students in the admission process.

I had this one mother get angry at me (and hung up on me) because I wouldn't give over her daughters username and password for her account. The mother made this account herself, but used her daughters email address (which is VERY rare). Mom was pissed because:
a) Daughter is a minor (FERPA protects students of all ages, even minors)
b) She created the account herself

Oy vey...

[KitterCat]

My little sister's school had something like that. She kept delaying signing anything until she realized she needed to sign it to allow my mom to pay her tution. The paper got signed very quickly after that

I think my current school has something similar as well, since I had to sign some papers to allow one department to see records from another

But, really, parents need to let go at some point. Your kids are adults now, and they need to learn to behave like one at some point.

Yeah Mommy and Daddy need to learn when to let go, but at the same time if I’m paying for little ones college tuition I dame well want to know what their grades are. Are they actually going to class or do I need to pull funding and tell “Oh Precious Snowflake you are on your own for you have taken advantage of me and I don’t like it.” A simple fix would be for the parents just to tell their kids “Better show me your grades because if there not up to par, you get no money” but that would mean they would have to put some responsibility on the kids shoulders instead of the college.

[Andara Bledin]

Yeah Mommy and Daddy need to learn when to let go, but at the same time if I’m paying for little ones college tuition I dame well want to know what their grades are. Are they actually going to class or do I need to pull funding and tell “Oh Precious Snowflake you are on your own for you have taken advantage of me and I don’t like it.”

Well, if you can't get "little precious" to give you that information on their own, without going behind their back and getting it directly from the school, that should be a massive red flag right there.

At that point, you don't really need to know what they are, because you obviously already have a problem.

^-.-^

[depechemodefan]

You mean liberally sprinkling their sentences with "like" and "omigawd" doesn't work?


/durn kids and their crazy words! *shakes fist*

You think parents would have enough sense to get the neighbor's kid to impersonate the baby.

[lineswine]

You mean liberally sprinkling their sentences with "like" and "omigawd" doesn't work?

Aaaaand now I have a loop of Zappas' "Valley girl" playing in my head.

[draftermatt]

We've gotten pretty good at determining if a 40 year old is trying to sound like a 17 year old.

I have a deep voice, have since I was a kid.
People would mistake me for my father on the phone since the age of about 12.

I can only imagine the issues I would have had if I had a problem that required that type of call when I was in college.

[kirk2010]

We made that mistake... ONCE. The student and parents were extremely nice about it, they understood the guidelines and did not complain one bit.

I have a deep voice, have since I was a kid.
People would mistake me for my father on the phone since the age of about 12.

I can only imagine the issues I would have had if I had a problem that required that type of call when I was in college.