APPENDIX I

LAFAYETTE COLLEGE POLICY ON STUDENT RECORDS AND THE FAMILY EDUCATIONAL RIGHTS AND PRIVACY ACT (FERPA)

Introduction: The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (also known as the “Buckley Amendment”) is a federal law regarding the privacy of student records and obligations of the institution, primarily in the areas of release of the records and the access provided to these records. Any educational institution that receives funds under any program administered by the U.S. Secretary of Education is bound by FERPA requirements.

Under federal law, students have the right to obtain access to their education records and to prevent disclosure of records to third parties without authorization. In accordance with FERPA, Lafayette College will permit students to have access to specified records and will prevent release of records to third parties without personal authorization from the student except as noted in the regulations.

Policy on Student Records: Lafayette College seeks to teach students to become mature, reasoned, educated adults capable of defining and realizing their academic and personal developmental goals. To that end, the College practice is to regard students as the primary contact for interaction regarding information contained in student education records and to respect the confidentiality of that information. The College encourages students to act responsibly by communicating directly with their parents.

Under federal law, if College personnel determine that it is in the best interest of the student to disclose to a student’s parent(s) information from that student’s education record, the College may elect to do so after receiving proof of the student’s financial dependency on their parent(s) for federal income tax purposes. In these rare cases, the College practice is to communicate first, when possible, with the student regarding a parental request for information.

Students who are not dependent on their parent(s) for federal income tax purposes, and students who are dependent but wish to provide their parent(s) general access to their education record, may allow College personnel to share education record information with their parent(s) by signing a waiver. Waivers can be found on the registrar’s website or picked up in the Offices of the Registrar or the Office of Advising and Co-curricular Programs.

Students also may elect to have information from their education record shared with graduate schools, potential employers, or other third parties by signing a release that can be found on the registrar’s website or picked up in the Office of the Registrar or the Office of Advising and Co-curricular Programs.

Annual Notification: FERPA requires that the College provide notification annually to students of their rights under FERPA. The College provides this notification each semester through its publication of the course schedule that is distributed to all students. The annual notification includes the rights outlined below:

FERPA affords students certain rights with respect to their education records. These rights include:

  1. The right to inspect and review the student’s education records within 45 days of the day the College receives a request for access.
  2. The right to request the amendment of the student’s education records that the student believes is inaccurate, misleading, or otherwise in violation of the student’s privacy rights under FERPA.
  3. The right to provide written consent before the College discloses personally identifiable information from the student’s education records, except to the extent that FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent.
  4. The right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education concerning alleged failures by the College to comply with the requirements of FERPA. The name and address of the office that administers FERPA is:

Family Policy Compliance Office

U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Ave., SW
Washington, D.C. 20202-5920

Definition of Education Records: Under FERPA, education records are defined as records that are directly related to a student and are maintained by an education agency or institution or by a party acting for the agency or institution. Education records can exist in any medium, including: typed, computer generated, videotape, audiotape, film, microfiche, and email, among others.

Education records do not include such things as sole possession records or notes, information obtained through personal knowledge that is not recorded, law enforcement records, employment records (when the student is also an employee), medical treatment records, or alumni records.

At Lafayette, the individuals or offices responsible for maintaining education records include the following: 

  • Registrar—Permanent transcript: Includes dates of attendance, course of study, grades, and official action of the College relating to probation, dismissal, etc.
  • Dean of Advising and Co-curricular Programs—Individual student file: Includes application for admission, test scores, grades, student biographical form, copies of correspondence with or about student, notation of official disciplinary actions, petitions to Academic Progress Committee, and copies of letters of recommendation.
  • Controller—Business records.
  • Adviser—Advising files: Includes grades, copies of petitions, and adviser’s notes and correspondence with student.
  • Communications—Public information file: Includes copies of Lafayette College Student Biographical Form and news releases about students.
  • Health Professions Adviser—Health Professions Advisory Committee file: Includes the student’s transcript, medical aptitude scores, faculty evaluation, and correspondence on professional school admission.

Obtaining Access to Your Education Record: Students who wish to obtain access to their student record should submit to the registrar, dean, or other appropriate official a written request that identifies the record the student wishes to inspect. Within a reasonable amount of time, but no later than 45 days, the College official will make arrangements for access and notify the student of the time and place where the records may be inspected.

Students may not see letters of reference or recommendations for which they have waived their rights of review.

Students’ Rights to Amend Records: A student who wishes to ask the College to amend a record should write the College official responsible for the record, clearly identify the portion of the record that the student would like changed, and specify why it should be changed. If the College decides not to amend the record as requested, the College will notify the student in writing of the decision and the student’s right to a hearing regarding the request for amendment. Additional information regarding the hearing procedures will be provided to the student when notified of the right to a hearing.

It is appropriate to seek amendment of information that is inaccurate or misleading. This is not a grade grievance mechanism. For example, a student could question whether a grade has been entered incorrectly, but not the legitimacy of the grade itself.

Disclosure of Educational Records to School Officials: The College discloses information from the education records without a student’s prior written consent under the FERPA exception for disclosure to school officials with legitimate educational interests. A school official is a person employed by the College in an administrative, supervisory, academic or research, or support staff position (including law enforcement unit personnel and health staff); a person or company with whom the College has contracted as its agent to provide a service instead of using College employees or officials (such as an attorney, auditor, or collection agent); a person serving on the Board of Trustees; or a student serving on an official committee, such as a disciplinary or grievance committee, or assisting another school official in performing their tasks.

A school official has a legitimate educational interest if the official needs to review an education record in order to fulfill their professional responsibilities for the College.

Upon request, the College also discloses education records without consent to officials of another school in which a student seeks or intends to enroll.

Disclosure of Directory Information: FERPA specifically identifies certain information called “directory information” that may be disclosed by the College without the consent of the student. Lafayette College considers the following to be directory information: Student’s name, College and home address and phone numbers, P.O. box number, email address, date of birth, photograph, dates of attendance, class year, degree program and major, adviser’s name, degrees and awards received, participation in College activities, and the weight and height of members of athletic teams.

Although this information is public in nature, students may request that their directory information be withheld and released only upon written authorization by completing the required form and submitting it annually to the Office of the Registrar.

Disclosure of Non-Directory Information: The College may, in specific instances and under strict limitations, release information from education records to individuals and/or agencies without the written consent of the students. Such persons are:

  1. College personnel with legitimate educational interests. College personnel includes all employees or agencies contracting with the College to perform service on its behalf.
  2. Officials of educational institutions in which the student seeks to enroll, provided that the student is notified of the release, receives a copy of the record if desired, and has an opportunity to challenge the factual content of the record. The procedure for challenging records is outlined below.
  3. Authorized representatives of the Comptroller General of the United States; the Secretary of the Department of Education; the Attorney General of the United States, Veterans Administration officials, and state educational authorities.
  4. Persons requiring information in connection with a student’s financial aid.
  5. State and local officials to whom the College must report pursuant to a state statute adopted before Nov. 19, 1974.
  6. Officials of organizations that conduct studies for educational agencies or institutions provided that personally identifiable data is available only to officers of such organizations and that such information will be destroyed when no longer needed for purposes of the study.
  7. Officials of accrediting organizations.

Parents of dependent students as defined in section 152 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.

  1. Parents of dependent students under the age of 21 who violate the College’s alcohol or drug policies.
  2. Persons authorized to receive such data through judicial order or pursuant to a subpoena. In such cases, when allowed, the College will attempt to notify the student before its compliance with such orders.
  3. Individuals who require information in connection with an emergency that threatens the health and safety of the student or other persons.

Lafayette also may release, without restriction, information that cannot be identified with particular students. An example of such data would be statistical information abstracted from education records. The College reserves the right not to provide copies of third-party documents.

APPENDIX II

HOW TO AVOID PLAGIARISM ON WRITING PROJECTS

The following guidelines encourage practices that will help you avoid plagiarism when working on writing projects. Many college assignments require that you draw on outside sources to build your argument, establish your credibility, and demonstrate your knowledge of the subject. Using these outside sources correctly requires careful attention to how you are appropriating them from the original source and how you are integrating them into your own work. The following tips will help you write plagiarism-free papers in which all of your sources are acknowledged.

Procrastination Can Lead to Plagiarism: Waiting until the last minute to write a document will increase the likelihood that you do not cite sources in an acceptable manner. It might also increase the temptation to lift material from others and claim it as your own in a last-ditch effort to finish the assignment. Avoiding procrastination is key to avoiding plagiarism. If you do not think you will finish an assignment by the due date, contact your professor. It is far better to be penalized on a single project than it is to engage in a last-minute act of academic dishonesty in hopes of completing an assignment, an act that could ultimately result in expulsion from Lafayette. Assistance and strategies to effectively deal with procrastination are available through the College Counseling Center as well as the Academic Tutoring and Training Information Center (ATTIC).

Take Meticulous Notes: As you read material to prepare for writing, take meticulous notes and record where the notes came from as you work. This will decrease the likelihood that you inadvertently use the ideas from something you have read and then forget to cite them. Careful note taking means recording full bibliographic information for the source and noting whether the copied material is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized. If you copy and paste material directly, it needs to be quoted, and you need to include all of the relevant bibliographic information.

Use the Appropriate Citation System: While many students learned the MLA citation style in high school English class (the citation system of the Modern Language Association), in college you will often be expected to use a different citation system depending on the discipline for which you are writing. For example, you may be expected to use APA style for a psychology course or Chicago style for a history course. Each citation system has its own guidelines for citing material. You will need to consult the appropriate style guide to learn the system, and they are available in the library.

Follow a Key Guideline to Avoid Plagiarism: Although citation systems differ, there is one principle to which all systems adhere: You must write in a way so that your reader always knows when she is reading your ideas and when she is reading the ideas of others that you have appropriated
to complete your paper.

  1. Do Not Wait until the Last Draft of the Paper to Place Your Citations in the Text: Students will sometimes wait until they have finished a draft of an assignment and then return to place the citations in the text. This will increase the probability that you forget to include a citation.
  2. Learn the Differences Among Summary, Paraphrase, and Quotation: When you appropriate the writings or ideas of others, there will be times when you need to summarize their material and times when you need to quote their material. This sometimes depends on the discipline. Scientists, for example, rarely use quotations in their work. You can learn the difference among summary, paraphrase, and quotation by consulting the appropriate style guide.
  3. Know that “Patch Writing” Is a Form of Plagiarism: According to Rebecca Moore Howard, “patch writing” is a form of dubious or sloppy paraphrasing. It happens when you borrow the sentences of others and then change just a few words without fundamentally changing the structure of the sentence. You can avoid this by changing the sentence fundamentally (paraphrasing) or by using the sentence exactly as it was written with quotation marks around it.
  4. Use Campus Resources: If you are having difficulty with a project, visit your professor, consult a research librarian in Skillman Library, meet with a faculty member or writing associate in the College Writing Center or talk with your class instructor. There are resources on campus to help you learn how to cite material correctly. Using them, however, takes careful planning. This is one more good reason to avoid procrastination!

APPENDIX III

UNDERGRADUATE MOTOR VEHICLE AND TRAFFIC REGULATIONS

For the most up to date information on motor vehicle and traffic regulations, please see the Public Safety Parking, Transportation and LCAT Shuttle Services website.

 

APPENDIX IV

OFFICE OF RESIDENCE LIFE
TERMS OF CONTRACT FOR COLLEGE-OWNED OFF-CAMPUS RESIDENCES 

As a residential college, Lafayette believes in the value of students living and learning together for all years of their enrollment. All students are required to live in College-owned or affiliated campus housing unless approved to reside in private off-campus housing or commute from their parent/guardian’s home.

Housing contracts for the current academic year can be found on the Office of Residence Life’s website, here.

APPENDIX VI

CONSTITUTION OF THE LAFAYETTE COLLEGE STUDENT GOVERNMENt

The Student Government constitution, including bylaws, also can be found on studentgovernment.lafayette.edu.

APPENDIX VII

POLICY ON SOLICITATION
  1. Solicitation on the Lafayette College campus by College and non-College-related vendors is regulated.
  2. All vendors, including both College-related student vendors (currently enrolled students, officially recognized College organizations) and non-College-related vendors (businesses or corporations, including private sellers) must receive approval to be able to solicit on campus. To receive approval to solicit on campus, the student or organization must provide the following information:
  3. The date, time and location of event, as well as the sponsoring group.
  4. Proof that solicitors are authorized to represent the company.
  5. Demonstration that products or services are of a high quality and produced by a company that abides by the College’s standards of ethical and nondiscriminatory policies.
  6. The sale of products or services, including method of sale, must be consistent with standards, practices, and policies of Lafayette College and work to further the educational goals of Lafayette as an academic and residential community.
  7. Products or services should be different from, or an improvement upon, the products and services already offered by the College or currently registered vendors.
  8. The proposed method of solicitation must not be disruptive to campus life or College activities.

Vendors wishing to solicit in Farinon College Center or in partnership with a student organization should contact the Office of Student Involvement.  Vendors wishing to solicit in academic buildings, on campus grounds, or anywhere else on campus should contact the dean of students.

III. The dean of students or his representative maintains sole discretion of providing approval to vendors. The following criteria will serve in part as a basis for this decision:

  1. The sale of products or services, including method of sale, must be consistent with standards, practices, and policies of Lafayette College and work to further the educational goals of Lafayette as an academic and residential community.
  2. Products or services should be different from, or an improvement upon, the products and services already offered by the College or currently registered vendors.
  3. The proposed method of solicitation must not be disruptive to campus life or College activities.

The following guidelines for solicitation will be in effect for all registered vendors:

  1. Solicitation is limited to the hours of 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday, unless a special exemption is granted due to the nature of the business. Ordinarily, Saturday and Sunday solicitation is prohibited.
  2. No solicitation may occur during final examination periods
    nor reading days.
  3. If the salesperson is, in any way, causing a disruption to students anywhere on campus, a student may file a written complaint with the dean of students, and the approval to solicit may be revoked.
  4. Solicitation may be further limited with regard to hours, locations, services, products, or in any other way deemed desirable by the dean of students or designee. The approval to solicit by a College-related vendor should not imply College approval, endorsement, or guarantee of the solicitor or the products or services.
  5. Certain non-College-related vendors may be permitted to solicit in fraternity or sorority living groups. These vendors (e.g., stationery, fraternity paraphernalia, etc.) must first obtain a written permit from the Office of Residence Life before any solicitation occurs, even if the solicitation is carried out by a student.

The above guidelines also apply to all non-College-related vendors with permits.

APPENDIX VII

POLICY ON DISTRIBUTION OF LITERATURE

The following regulations govern the distribution of literature (including posting of fliers, advertisements, announcements and other signs) by members of the Lafayette community:

General Conditions for All Temporary Signage

Distribution of literature must not interfere with the educational mission or activities of Lafayette College or result in interference with the programs of the College.

The dean of students or representative may limit the time, place, or manner for distribution of literature and will work to ensure the protection of free speech.

All posters, advertisements, announcements and other signs must include the date of the program or a remove-by date.  Postings without such a date will be removed immediately.

Signs may not advertise alcohol or illegal substances.

Postings must not obscure pre-existing postings.

All advertisements on campus must include identifying information of the sponsoring organization (i.e. logo, name, etc).  Event advertisements must include date, time, and location of the event.

All advertisements should be removed within 24 hours of their expiration.

All off-campus, non-College job postings must be directed to the Office of Career Services.

Signs must be attached using materials that will not damage property and in concert with any building-specific policies (e.g., Farinon College Center or Residence Life posting policies).

All advertisements must comply with the College non-discrimination policy.

Postings (of any kind) are not permitted on:

  • external building surfaces
  • outdoor furniture or fixtures (e.g., benches, statues, etc.)
  • wood trim
  • entry and exit doors of buildings
  • windows
  • glass doors
  • painted or acoustical surfaces
  • elevators, both inside and outside
  • concrete walkways
  • stair risers

Staff in Public Safety, Facilities, and Campus Life, as well as other officials of the College have authority to remove signs in violation of Lafayette posting procedures and to remove expired signs. On-going program flyers are permitted to remain on the bulletin boards until the program is completed or the end of an academic semester, whichever is first.

The form and content of publicity will not be restricted, unless the material is illegal or obscene in content, or does not adhere to College policies on protected speech. Improper postings may result in loss of posting privilege and/or responsibility for damages. The distribution of literature on College property by outside individuals or entities is prohibited unless advance permission is granted by the dean of students.

The stipulations above are not intended to prohibit the distribution of information by Lafayette College. Requests for permission to distribute literature on campus should be directed to the dean of students.

Farinon College Center Posting Policy

Requests for permission to distribute literature within Farinon College Center should be directed to the director of Student Involvement.

Within Farinon College Center:

  • All advertisements and promotions (posters, banners, displays, chalking, etc.) must be approved by the Office of Student Involvement staff through the Farinon Promotion Request From on OurCampus, prior to posting.
  •  All advertisements MUST contain the Student Involvement stamp. Any materials not approved will be removed.
  •  All advertising should include the date, time, and location of the event, as well as the sponsoring group and contact information.
  • Advertising is limited to the promotion of student organization and department events, activities, and causes. Business and commercial advertising is not permitted, except on the designated community bulletin board.
  • Advertising, except for banners and easel displays, may not exceed 11” x 17”.
  •  All advertisements, announcements, and signs are permitted in designated areas only.
  • No posting/signage may be secured to walls inside the lobbies, doors, windows, stairwells, hallways, tables or coffee tables, or any other area than designated bulletin boards.
  • All advertisements may be hung for one (1) week or until the occurrence of the event, whichever is first. Extended time may be granted by the Office of Student Involvement on a case by case basis. Outdated materials will be removed.
  • No advertising or posting for any event, program, or service is permitted on the exterior of the facilities. (exception: see chalking policy).
  • All advertising must comply with all college policies and should be educational, informational, or culturally enriching in nature.
  • The Office of Student Involvement reserves the right to refuse to post or distribute any material which violates the College’s student code of conduct or College policies.