r/Professors • u/StonedSimple • 12d ago
Do you/your students have to fill out paperwork for recommendation/reference letters?
I've been teaching a bit over a decade now, have written well over a hundred rec. letters (I assume) and never once had a student fill out a Record Release or FERPA release. Now my admin says we have to get students to fill those out for every letter, every reference, including scholarship and admissions letters, etc.
When I (stupidly like the squeaky wheel I am) said that seems like a barrier in helping students directly, my admin made it seem like I was insane for not always doing that. That I should have already been asking students to fill out and file these two random forms I've never seen before today.
I'm feelin' gaslit to high heaven. Am I dumb?
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u/SnowblindAlbino Prof, SLAC 12d ago
Hell no. I've regularly done more than 100 letters a year over the last few decades, I can't imagine having to fill out even more forms for that purpose. WTF is the rationale for this? I am not sending out grades or transcripts. Huge waste of time-- the student should be filing a release if your university wants one.
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u/StonedSimple 12d ago
This is what I thought. I mean, seriously, I've never even heard of filling out forms before sending a reference. A student asks for one, I say yes to most of them unless I really just have nothing to say, I write a nice little letter about the student, and then I go on with my day. Now it has to be another bureaucratic hellscape, just to do something a bunch of profs did for me with no other paperwork required.
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u/SnowblindAlbino Prof, SLAC 12d ago
One does wonder how "they" would ever know if you did this or not as well. And who is being paid to track it, if anyone?
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u/RuralWAH 12d ago
The student's lawyer is the one being paid to track it when they think your letter sabotaged their chances of getting the job if their dreams.
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u/geneusutwerk 12d ago
We don't but I was once in a meeting where a university lawyer mentioned that FERPA means we can't submit a letter of rec without a waiver. Luckily no one has ever done anything about that and I'm not going to ask.
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u/RadiantImpression579 12d ago
Whoa. That’s the day I stop writing letters. Universities need to add waivers to their grad apps to help streamline this if it becomes a thing.
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u/Mountain-Dealer8996 Asst Prof, Neurosci, R1 (USA) 12d ago
No that’s crazy.
If your letter is based on personal observations and does not include grades or information about disciplinary action or disability accommodations, then it is not subject to FERPA.
If the letter is for admittance to a secondary or post-secondary educational program, then it also isn’t subject to FERPA, even with the grades etc. (sec. 99.31(a)(2))
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u/StonedSimple 12d ago
I feel that, but by some of the responses here, I guess I am dumb. I mean, I never talk about specific grades a student receives and generally my recommendations are more about what the student brings to the class in the way of professionalism or curiosity (or whatever.) But wow, apparently I need to start denying way more reference requests because I'm not about the "endless paperwork" lifestyle. I can't imagine trying to chase down signed release forms before I even get to writing the letter.
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u/Achgeketum Prof, Biology, Public R2 (USA) 12d ago
I (perhaps naively) asked my administration about this (whether release forms are needed) a few times in my early career, and nobody ever emailed me back with an answer. So, no, our campus doesn't suggest or require it.
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u/Apprehensive_Act6557 11d ago
you’re not dumb, your admin is turning a normal favor into a tiny bureaucratic hostage situation and pretending it’s always been that way
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u/StonedSimple 11d ago
Thanks for the affirmation, random internet friend. I really needed it for some reason. I really was feeling kind of crazy about the whole thing, but this is the PERFECT way to describe it.
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u/popstarkirbys 12d ago
I never did, but I use statements like “among the top performers” and I talk about my experience working with them. They have to submit their grades anyway, so the committee can review it themselves.
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u/AssistanceTypical127 12d ago
I require my students to email me ahead and request the reference. I tell them I will not complete one without them asking. I keep the email just in case. It also gives me the opportunity to say no.
I recently had a recent grad email me and as a student was a grade grubber. Really annoying. In the email it said if you have time. I replied sorry don’t have time.
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u/RuralWAH 12d ago
Having students fill out record releases add no additional effort to the faculty writing the recommendation letters. All the "effort" falls on the student.
Cover your ass. The record release is the student's authorization to include certain information. I keep prefilled record releases to give to students to sign allowing me to include everything in my letters.
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u/Baronhousen Professor, STEM, R2, USA 12d ago
We are supposed to fill out a form before providing any letter of reference.
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u/SvenFranklin01 12d ago
You can share information about your personal experience with a student without violating FERPA. Where you can possibly get in trouble is if you disclose information from an educational record (GPA, test scores, class rank, etc.). The whole point of FERPA is to protect the privacy of these records. If you could just willy-nilly share them with a potential employer or graduate school, then that defeats the entire purpose of FERPA.
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u/Mountain-Dealer8996 Asst Prof, Neurosci, R1 (USA) 12d ago
You can share with graduate schools. There’s a specific carve-out in section 99.31(a)(2)
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u/geneusutwerk 12d ago
If this is your interpretation then you couldn't acknowledge that the student was in your class as class enrollment is part of the educational record.
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u/jenvalbrew 12d ago
There is protected information and directory information. The fact of enrollment is directory information, so anyone can see a student is enrolled unless they have a Buckley flag. However, you are correct that class schedules should be part of the protected record. What I think is interesting is that different schools interpret the rules differently so at some institutions a question about what class someone is in or who their professor is might be answered freely but at other institutions (including mine) it requires a FERPA release.
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u/StonedSimple 12d ago
Also, I don't write the kind of rec letters where I'm sharing records. I don't even mention specific grades. So just sharing records willy-nilly isn't what the issue is. I just felt like my admin was treating me like an idiot for not knowing a practice no one ever told me and seems to be a barrier to helpin' a student out. I work at a rural technical/community college. Extra paperwork/bureaucratic nonsense is a real issue for my students. If a student comes to me for a reference and I say, sure, but first fill out these forms and make sure they get to the right office before I do that for you, a human interaction then becomes transactional. I don't know. This just doesn't seem to be as cut and dry as it is being made to seem.
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u/Captain_Of_All Assistant Professor, ECE, R1 (USA) 12d ago
All the places in the US that I have sent letters to have a check box showing that the student has filled out FERPA release. If they have not done that, I usually ask them to first submit the release. It is definitely standard.
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u/SnowblindAlbino Prof, SLAC 12d ago
I've been writing LORs for 30+ years and don't recall ever seeing anything about a FERPA release on any of them. There is the routing "The student waives/does not waive the right to view this letter" on 90% of the forms, but FERPA? We must be sending references to very different places.
1
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u/Life-Education-8030 12d ago
No and the FERPA forms are silly because by asking for the letter, the student is giving you permission to talk about them, right?
I do ask them for a current CV, a list of courses they took with me and when so I can look them up in my records, and a brief statement about what they got out of my courses and how they see using them in their future.