LITTLE ROCK — The University of Central Arkansas would be wise to follow the advice of the U.S. Department of Education and withhold the identities of students who received no-criteria presidential discretionary scholarships, the Arkansas attorney general's office said Friday.
Deputy Attorney General Elisabeth A. Walker wrote in an attorney general's opinion requested by UCA that the university "should be well positioned to decide this matter" by following the federal department's advice that releasing the information would violate the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
The federal law, often called FERPA, protects students' educational records such as transcripts, references and grades. The Education Department can withhold federal funding from schools that release private information in violation of that law.
Melissa Moody, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel's chief of staff, said Friday that the recommendation to followthe department's advice and withhold the data doesn't imply that the attorney general's office believes releasing it is necessarily illegal.
Instead, the opinion gives strictly practical guidance: If the agency with the power to withhold funding says not to release the data, then don't release it, Moody said.
"We are simply deferring to the appropriate authority," she said.
UCA officials have acknowledged that many of the scholarships, which totaled about $1.8 million since the fall of 2006, were given without academic or performance criteria.
An Arkansas Democrat-Gazette review of hundreds of emails awarding the scholarships showed UCA handed them out often with no criteria, in wideranging amounts and under the occasional recommendation of high-profile people.
Those who recommended recipients for the scholarships included the son of former Gov. Mike Huckabee, David Huckabee; state Sen. Steve Faris; formerArkansas House Speaker Benny Petrus; and some current and former UCA trustees.
UCA's board of trustees voted earlier this year to end the nocriteria portion of the scholarships and replace them with scholarships requiring recipients to show exceptional financial need or extraordinary academic performance.
The U.S. Department of Education wrote UCA in May saying the identities of the scholarship recipients should not be released "in situations where the basis for the scholarship is undefined or could be need based or related to a student's financial need."
"Therefore, because the release of this type of scholarship information in personally identifiable form could be potentially harmful or an invasion of privacy, FERPA would preclude the University from disclosing this information without the prior written consent of the recipient," the letter said.
UCA President Allen C. Meadors said Friday that the university, which asked for the attorney general's opinion after requests for the information from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, would not release the data.
As a public university, the school needs to be "very, very cautious" to ensure it does not violate student privacy laws and risk losing funding needed toeducate students, he said.
"We got the message loud and clear," Meadors said. "I'm not going to have the attorney general mad at me."
Rick Peltz, a professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's W.H. Bowen School of Law and an expert on freedomof-information law, said UCA's decision to withhold the information is understandable.
"The Department of [Education] has issued a letter that's on point," he said. "They would be in bad stead to disregard it."
However, concerns that UCA would face sanctions if it did release the data are likely overblown, said Adam Goldstein, an attorney advocate with the nonprofit Student Press Law Center in Virginia.
Goldstein said the Department of Education has never withheld any funding from any school for violating the privacy law in its 35-year history.
And since there is no penalty for withholding information that should be public, schools simply opt to "always say 'no,'" Goldstein said.
"The kicker, of course, is that schools often have a reason to say 'no,' like the information is humiliating or it reveals wrongdoing," Goldstein said.
"So FERPA, which is a law intended to protect the accuracy and integrity of student information, functions more like an excuse for schools to avoid accountability for any decisions they make ever."
Arkansas, Pages 11, 12 on 08/22/2009