News & Events

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. Whether you’re a faculty member, staff employee, or student, understanding FERPA is not just a legal obligation, it’s a matter of trust.  

For Faculty and Staff, FERPA means you may only access student records when there is a legitimate educational need to do so. Sharing a student’s grades, enrollment status, financial information, or academic performance with anyone including parents, employers, or other faculty without the student’s consent is a violation of federal law. Even a casual conversation in a public hallway about a student’s academic standing can constitute a FERPA breach. Always verify your authority to access or share student information before doing so.  

For Students, FERPA gives you the right to inspect and review your own education records, request corrections to records you believe are inaccurate, and control how your information is disclosed to third parties. You also have the right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education if you believe your rights have been violated.  

Key Reminders:  

• Do not post grades publicly using names or identifiable information.  

• Verify identity before discussing student information.  

• Be cautious when emailing sensitive data, use secure systems.  

• When in doubt, consult your department or ITS before sharing information.  

Protecting student privacy is a shared responsibility. Understanding FERPA helps maintain trust, compliance, and the integrity of our academic community.  

You may have heard the term “doxxing” thrown around online, but it’s no longer just an internet culture buzzword. It’s a real threat that affects students, faculty, and staff at universities across the country and understanding it could protect you from serious harm. 

What Is Doxxing? 

Doxxing (from “dropping documents”) is the act of researching and publicly exposing someone’s private information without their consent. This can include a home address, phone number, workplace, class schedule, family members’ names, or financial details. The goal is almost always to intimidate, harass, or harm the target and the information is often posted publicly to encourage others to pile on. 

What makes doxxing especially unsettling is how little it requires. Much of the information used in doxxing attacks is already technically public scattered across social media profiles, old forum posts, public records, and data broker websites. A motivated bad actor can piece together a surprisingly complete picture of your life in just a few hours. 

Why Is It Dangerous? 

Being doxxed can range from an unsettling experience to a genuinely serious safety concern. At minimum, victims often deal with unwanted contact, harassment, and a persistent feeling of vulnerability. In more serious cases it can affect someone’s professional reputation, physical safety, or mental wellbeing. 

University communities are especially vulnerable. Public-facing faculty, student activists, researchers working on controversial topics, and student journalists are among the more frequent targets. 

How to Protect Yourself 

You don’t need to disappear from the internet — but a few smart habits go a long way: 

• Audit your social media. Review what’s publicly visible on your profiles. Your location, daily routine, and workplace are valuable to bad actors. Tighten your privacy settings. 

• Search yourself. Google your name periodically, including variations with your city or phone number. See what comes up — then work to remove it. 

• Opt out of data brokers. Sites like Spokeo, Whitepages, and BeenVerified sell your personal data. Most offer opt-out processes, and services like DeleteMe can automate removal. 

• Separate your identities. Use different usernames across platforms, especially in communities where conflict is common. Avoid linking your real name to accounts where you engage in controversial discussions. 

• Use your university address. For any public-facing communications, list your campus address or P.O. box rather than your home. 

If It Happens to You 

Document everything — screenshots, links, timestamps. Report it to the platform, to University Public Safety, and to local law enforcement if threats are involved. You are not alone, and you are not powerless. 

Need a break from studying? Join ITS for our Study Break series — a chance to recharge, grab a treat and connect with us outside of tech support questions.

Throughout the semester, we’ll pop up in campus spaces to offer a quick study break and share helpful information about ITS services, our weekly newsletter, and upcoming events. It’s also a great opportunity to meet members of our team — we don’t always get the chance to interact with students face-to-face and we’d love to see you!

Upcoming Study Breaks

• March 26 – Digital Scholarship Space, Bird Library
  🧁 Cupcakes available while supplies last

• April 16 – Schine Center
  🍬 Candy available while supplies last

Check back for additional dates and locations as we continue the Study Break series throughout the year.

Stop by, say hello, and take a well-deserved break!

By: Shannon Glennon, AI Technology Transformation Specialist

If you’ve been exploring Claude more in depth lately, you might have noticed two features that sound remarkably similar: Projects and Skills. They’re not the same thing—and understanding the difference can transform the way you use Claude.

Put simply: use a Project to keep everything related to a subject in one place and use a Skill to make sure Claude always knows how you want things done.

A Project is best understood as a dedicated file folder or storage system organized around a specific subject. Everything lives in one place—your uploaded documents, your instructions and your entire chat history related to that topic. Claude always has that context ready to go, so you’re never starting from scratch. For example, imagine you’re leading a campus-wide migration to a new Learning Management System. You could create a Project and load it with your migration timeline, training documentation, stakeholder communications and technical specs. Every conversation you have within that Project builds on what came before, like a running log your team can reference and refine throughout the rollout.

A Skill, on the other hand, is a portable, reusable procedure that works everywhere—inside Projects, in regular chats, across your entire workflow. To create a Skill, simply write your instructions in a plain text document and upload it to Claude under Settings > Capabilities > Skills (no coding required). Not sure where to start? Toggle on the Skill Creator under Example Skills to help you build your first one. For example, you could create a Skill that teaches Claude to always format your communications using your department’s specific tone, ticket structure or approval language. Once built, that Skill activates automatically whenever it’s relevant.

Put simply: use a Project to keep everything related to a subject in one place and use a Skill to make sure Claude always knows how you want things done. Two features, one more powerful AI experience.