It was a BAD week for transparency, after Yale Law School Dean Robert Post made a startling announcement during his annual “State of the School” address. Post told students the law school destroyed all student admission records, as well as any notations made on student files by the career development office, according to The New Republic.
Apparently, there was a flood of requests for records under the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Instead of complying with the few too many requests, Yale Law decided to destroy all records. And here’s the best part: The man who drafted FERPA, former U.S. Senator James L. Buckley, is a 1949 Yale Law School graduate.
A similar incident happened at Stanford University earlier this year. After a student-run newsletter sent subscribers detailed instructions on how to access records, the California school received nearly 2,800 requests from undergraduate students. The initial requests are being honored, but Stanford has deleted all electronic files that have not been requested. The university will no longer maintain future admission files for students to avoid going through this again.
