President Donald Trump allegedly went to great lengths to prevent his college grades and SAT scores from becoming public, according to evidence provided to Congress by his former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen this week.
Thankfully most of us don’t have to do much to make sure that C in Econ 101 or triple-digit SAT score doesn’t come back to haunt us.
As part of his testimony to the House Oversight Committee this week, Cohen presented lawmakers with a copy of a letter he said he wrote in 2016 to Trump’s former schools and the The College Board — the nonprofit that administers the SAT — threatening legal action if they released his academic information.
“Please be advised that (i) my client does not consent to any release or disclosure of any educational records to any third parties; and (ii) if in the event any of his records are released or otherwise disclosed without his prior written consent, we will hold your institution liable to the fullest extent of the law including damages and criminality,” the letter reads.
(Trump responded in general on Twitter TWTR, -0.62% to Cohen’s testimony Wednesday, saying that Cohen was “lying in order to reduce his prison time.” Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine after pleading guilty to tax evasion, making false statements to a financial institution, unlawful excessive campaign contributions and lying to Congress as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.)
Colleges must follow a federal law protecting students’ information
Though there was a heightened interest in Trump’s grades at the time Cohen says he wrote the letters, during the 2016 election, laws governing educational records mean that it’s unlikely they would have come to light, experts say. In a few cases, rogue leaks to reporters have facilitated the release of politicians’ transcripts in the past, but overall colleges take very seriously, the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act, which generally prohibits schools from releasing a student’s grades or other educational records without their explicit written consent.
There are a few exceptions to this rule. For example, the records can be subpoenaed as part of a court proceeding, said LeRoy Rooker, a senior fellow at the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. But “there’s no time where they could simply disclose grades publicly,” he said.
Bob Howe, a spokesman for Fordham University, the New York City college Trump attended for two years, confirmed in an emailed statement that the school doesn’t “release student records to anyone but the student/graduate or anyone that the student designates, in writing.” (The University of Pennsylvania, where Trump ultimately received his degree, declined to comment on student records).
Howe said in the email that Fordham received a call from a Trump campaign representative as he was getting ready to run. Fordham representatives told the caller that the school is “bound by federal law,” and therefore wouldn’t release any of Trump’s educational records without his consent, Howe said in the email.
Fordham received a follow-up letter from one of Trump’s attorneys summarizing the call and reminding the school that they would take action against the university if the records were released, Howe said.
You can’t sue a school if they divulge your grades
In reality, it would be pretty difficult for Trump or any of his representatives to take action against the school if it published his grades, according to Jeffrey Nolan, a Burlington, Vermont-based attorney who specializes in higher education law.
FERPA is enforced by the Department of Education. Schools found in violation of the law can risk losing access to federal funding. But there’s not much individuals can do to hold schools accountable if they believe they’ve disclosed their records, Nolan said.
The Supreme Court ruled that individuals can’t sue schools over FERPA violations when it weighed in on a lawsuit filed by a former Gonzaga University student who claimed a school staffer had divulged allegations of the student’s sexual misconduct to a state agency that certifies teachers.
In other words, “it’s well established you cannot be sued for violating FERPA and there most definitely is not any criminal liability or jail time,” Nolan said.
Schools can hand over some information, though
But there is some information about a student that colleges are allowed to disclose, Rooker said. Anything that might appear in a school directory, such a student’s name, address or whether they attended, is something a college is allowed to confirm to members of the public or press who ask.
That’s allowed employers and others to ferret out instances of people fabricating their college credentials. In 2007, the then-dean of admissions at MIT resigned after it was discovered that she had lied about her educational background. Corporate executives accused of lying on their resumes have faced similar consequences. Last year, a Republican candidate for Florida’s house of representatives dropped out of the race after claiming she graduated from college, when she actually didn’t.
SAT scores are a different matter
The question of whether standardized test scores might end up in the public domain is a bit trickier. “We’re not commenting on the testimony,” Zach Goldberg, a College Board spokesman, said in an email.
The College Board and other organizations that administer standardized tests aren’t governed by FERPA, Rooker and Nolan said, though they do have their own privacy policies.
The organizations collect a wealth of information about students, but according to the College Board’s privacy policy they only share it with colleges and other partners with students’ permission and for educational purposes, like measuring a region’s educational progress.
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