Are teachers supposed to have your mailing address?

[Bunbu]

Last week I received a letter from my instructor that clearly did not originate from the college. Anybody here knows how much personal information does the college disclose to its instructors?

[GoodYellowDogs]

I think it depends - for example LSU professors mail stuff to you at home. However, I think anything that comes from them should be on letterhead.

[cannoda]

Last week I received a letter from my instructor that clearly did not originate from the college. Anybody here knows how much personal information does the college disclose to its instructors?

It depends. I have access to my student's on campus and permanent addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and admission test scores (SAT, ACT). I also have full access to student transcripts. However, at my institution all tenure-track faculty are required to do advising. FERPA does apply - we can get our hands slapped pretty good if we are caught peeking without a good reason. I don't think that our adjunct faculty have direct access to student personal information but could get addresses and phone numbers as needed from our department secretaries.

I would guess that student addresses and phone numbers would be routinely accessible by instructors at any institution.

[ryoder]

We used to have to put our social security number on the top of our tests and homework, not our name. So every teacher had our social.

[sanantone]

We used to have to put our social security number on the top of our tests and homework, not our name. So every teacher had our social.

That doesn't sound secure at all and it's not because of the teachers having access them. I hope they locked up those papers.

[mrs.b]

Whenever you take a midterm exam, you fill out a return address card for instructors to send details about what went into the grade; I imagine they have addresses before then. If the letter was inappropriate, you can report it. In my experience, instructors defaulted to email communication if a private discussion was needed, but maybe they do not have a valid email for you?