Legal Responsibilities

Your Legal Responsibilities as an Advisor

Three main responsibilities exist:

1. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
   
   You may not release any student academic information to anyone outside the university without written permission by the student.
2. Mandatory Title IX Reporting
   
   You must report any incident of sexual misconduct that is told to you by an advisee, and you must provide the advisee's name. Please make sure your advisees are aware that anything of this nature they tell you must be reported. If your advisee does not want information reported under his or her name, the advisee can speak to employees with a confidential exemption.
   
   Report incidences of sexual misconduct to the University’s designated authorities, which include the following:
   • University Police
   • ESU Title IX Coordinator
   • Director of Human Resources Management
     
     To submit a Sexual Misconduct Incident Report Form, visit Sexual Harassment and Misconduct.
3. Crisis Response and Resources
   
   You may become aware of troubling persons or situations that cause serious anxiety, stress or fear. You should report such situations immediately to your chair and to the Campus Assessment Response and Evaluation (C.A.R.E.). You will rarely encounter threatening situations at the university, and you are not expected to be experts in responding to such issues, but you do need to report anything of concern.