A Rockefeller Center student assistant shuttled around the room with a microphone as students probed visiting lawyers for information about what exactly institutions of higher education can see in student emails.
The answer: everything, provided it’s written in the student handbook.
The Rockefeller Center hosted a panel on Thursday that addressed college students’ rights regarding Title IX, digital privacy and unreasonable search and seizure in educational institutions.
The New Hampshire Civil Liberties Union co-sponsored the event, and staff attorney Gilles Bissonnette moderated the panel discussion. The NHCLU is the state affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, a non-profit organization dedicated to defending individual rights.
The panel discussion was unusual in regards to its timing, as the Rockefeller Center does not usually host law-related events in the summer, and because the NHCLU organized it, coordinator of public and special events for the Rockefeller Center Joanne Needham said.
Around three or four months ago, the NHCLU’s development director Paul Racioppi and Bissonnette began to plan the organization’s annual membership event, which typically brings together the organization’s over 3,500 members to learn from legal professionals and to discuss current legal issues. This year, Racioppi and Bissonnette decided to focus on students’ rights and host the event at the College.
Two of the four panelists were Dartmouth alumni — Cheshire County attorney D. Chris McLaughlin ’81 and criminal defense lawyer George Ostler ’77, who represented Parker Gilbert ’16 when he stood trial for and was acquitted of rape last spring. The other two panelists have deep experience with education: Leah Plunkett is the director of academic success and associate professor of legal skills at the University of New Hampshire School of Law and Judith Sizer is a higher education lawyer who served as general counsel for Brandeis University before joining a law firm.
The discussion focused on issues like the disciplinary procedure at private institutions, the rights of law enforcement officials at these institutions and student’s privacy rights regarding personal information.
“These are very complicated but salient issues that we thought would be appropriate to cover,” Bissonnette said.
Fundamental rights such as the right to attorney and the right to cross-examine do not exist in a private institution’s disciplinary process, Ostler said.
A student has no right to an attorney but only to an advisor from the faculty or administration. He or she cannot take an active role in the process.
“It is more of an inquisition than a trial,” Ostler said.
Sizer then discussed the rising importance of Title IX, the debate around which has been “heating up” since 2011.
Title IX is part of the Education Amendment of 1972, which aims to prevent sex discrimination in schools. It began as a protection for gender equity in athletics but is now often used regarding sexual assault on college campuses.
“If one gender feels that the educational environment isn’t welcoming, then that’s a violation of Title IX,” Sizer said.
Bissonnette said that private institutions, under the threat of government withholding federal funding, have become increasingly conscientious of Title IX.
“The government is using Title IX as a sword to get institutions to do what they think is best,” Bissonnette said.
The focus on Title IX led to changes in college campuses nationwide, such as the increase in bystander intervention programs.
Colleges are now training students to intervene before an assault happens, Sizer said.
Dartmouth changed its sexual assault disciplinary policy for summer term.
Students found responsible for sexual assault through use of force or motivated by bias will be expelled.
As a criminal defender, Ostler said the consequences of this policy are drastic, warning about collateral damage for wrongfully convicted students.
“As soon as a kid is thrown out, his academic career is over,” Ostler said.
Next, the panelists discussed the difference between what Safety and Security officers and police officers can do. Ostler said that when asked, students must let a Safety and Security officer in to their dormitories because if they do not cooperate, the student faces a disciplinary hearing. If they do cooperate, however, they may face charges in cases of underage drinking or drug use. A police officer, on the other hand, could not enter a student’s room without a warrant, he said.
Finally, the panelists discussed the large amount of data collected on students and debated whether it is protected under a student’s right to privacy. Institutions of higher education collect data on students, from what food they buy and what buildings they enter to their social security information.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 guarantees that, in all institutions receiving federal funding, student education records cannot be disclosed to a third party without consent of the student or student guardian if he or she is less than 18 years old. However, Sizer countered the myth that private institutions will not share information with the student’s parents.
“FERPA allows, but does not require, institutions to share education records with parents of a student who is a tax dependent,” Sizer said.
For example, if a health or safety issue is dire, the institution can tell the parents.
Dartmouth’s right to search email sent from Dartmouth accounts was also broached by panelists.
“Policies tend to cast a pretty broad net for the ability to monitor at the institution’s discretion, sometimes with a set of criteria and sometimes not, communications that are sent over its Internet wireless or other devices,” Plunkett said.
As long as the policy is appropriately publicized as part of the student handbook, private institutions like Dartmouth can monitor emails. Plunkett said she does not think that most institutions regularly engage in intense email monitoring.
The article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction appended (7/18/14):
Due to an editing error, the original version of this story referred to Leah Plunkett with a masculine pronoun, but she is a woman. The article has been corrected.
