Dec 12, 2024  
2024-2025 Chesapeake College Catalog 
    
2024-2025 Chesapeake College Catalog

Appendix 3: Student Right-to-Know and Consumer Information


In compliance with federal regulations that require disclosure to current and prospective students1, Chesapeake College provides the following notice which lists and describes student consumer information available from the College’s website (www.chesapeake.edu) or upon request from the respective offices indicated below. 


Institutional Information 

This College Catalog, http://ecatalog.chesapeake.edu/index.php?catoid=13.  It contains information on academic programs (including degree and career offerings) faculty, staff, and administration, accreditations, student services including those for students with disabilities, withdrawal and refund policies, tuition and fees for full- and part-time students and much more. Further information about reviewing institutional accreditation documents can be obtained from the President’s Office and program accreditations from the Office of the Vice President for Workforce and Academic Programs.


Annual Notice to Students of Rights under FERPA

Cross-referenced: Student Records and Policies  

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) information is also online (http://www.chesapeake.edu/students/registration/ferpa), and further details can be obtained on request from the Registrar’s Office. 

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) affords the student rights with respect to education records. They are:

  1. The right to inspect and review the educational records within 45 days of the day the college receives a request for access.

    The student must submit to the Registrar a written request that identifies the record(s) they wish to inspect. The Registrar will make arrangements for access and send notice of the time and place where the records may be inspected. If the Office of Registration and Records does not maintain the records, the Registrar will advise the student of the college official to whom the request should be addressed.
     
  2. The right to request the amendment of education records believed to be inaccurate or misleading. 

    The student must write the college official responsible for the record, clearly identify the part of the record in question, and specify why it is accurate or misleading. If the college decides not to amend the record as requested, the college will send notice of the decision and advise the student of the right to a hearing regarding request for amendment. Within thirty (30) days from the date of the request, the Admissions, Academic Standing and Financial Aid committee will schedule and hold a hearing. The petitioning party will be given an opportunity to present reasons for concern to the committee, and the Committee will notify the student within fourteen (14) days thereafter of the results of its findings.
     
  3. The right to consent to disclosure of non-directory, personally identifiable information contained in education records, except to the extent that FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent. 

    One exception that permits disclosure without consent is disclosure to school officials with legitimate educational interests. A school official is a person employed by the college in an administrative, supervisory, academic, research or support staff position; a person or company with whom the college has contracted (such as an attorney, auditor or collection agency); a person serving on the Board of Trustees. A school official has a legitimate educational interest if the official needs to review an educational record in order to fulfill his or her professional responsibility. Upon request, the College discloses educational records without consent to officials of another school in which a student seeks or intends to enroll. Directory information is information that may be released to a third party without your consent.

    As of January 3, 2012, the U.S. Department of Education’s FERPA regulations expand the circumstances under which your education records and personally identifiable information (PII) contained in such records—including your Social Security Number, grades, or other private information—may be accessed without your consent. First, the U.S. Comptroller General, the U.S. Attorney General, the U.S. Secretary of Education, or state and local education authorities (“Federal and State Authorities”) may allow access to your records and PII without your consent to any third party designated by a Federal or State Authority to evaluate a federal- or state-supported education program. The evaluation may relate to any program that is “principally engaged in the provision of education,” such as early childhood education and job training, as well as any program that is administered by an education agency or institution. Second, Federal and State Authorities may allow access to your education records and PII without your consent to researchers performing certain types of studies, in certain cases even when we object to or do not request such research. Federal and State Authorities must obtain certain use-restriction and data security promises from the entities that they authorize to receive your PII, but the Authorities need not maintain direct control over such entities. In addition, in connection with Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems, State Authorities may collect, compile, permanently retain, and share without your consent PII from your education records, and they may track your participation in education and other programs by linking such PII to other personal information about you that they obtain from other Federal or State data sources, including workforce development, unemployment insurance, child welfare, juvenile justice, military service, and migrant student records systems.
     
  4. Directory information includes, but is not limited to, name, address, telephone number, dates of attendance, degrees and date earned, awards earned, enrollment status, (full-time or part-time), campus e-mail address, and participation in student activities. While the college does not routinely release information to everyone who inquires, it may legally do so if the third party demonstrates a legitimate need to know such information. Student may refuse to permit such disclosure without written consent by notifying the Office of Registration and Records in writing of their wish to be excluded from such release of information.
  5. The right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education concerning alleged failures by the college to comply with the requirements of FERPA. The name and address of the office that administers FERPA is:


Family Policy Compliance Office
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20202-4605


Graduation and Transfer Rates

Federal Student-Right-to-Know regulations call for colleges and universities to report the graduation and transfer rates of “full-time, first-time degree or certificate-seeking undergraduates entering the institution on or after September 1, 1996.”  These rates are based on degree completion or transfer-out within “150% of normal time,” which for a two-year institution would be three years. These rates do not include those students who may have taken longer than three years to graduate or transfer.

In reviewing these rates, it should be noted that Chesapeake College is a two-year public community college which has adopted an open admissions policy in keeping with its philosophy of providing citizens with access to postsecondary education. Thus students attend the College with a wide variety of goals including exploring transfer or career courses/programs and obtaining associate degrees and certificates.

The source for the following Chesapeake College graduation and transfer-out rates is the Graduation Rate Survey (GRS), a report submitted annually to the U.S. Department of Education. In the 2019 cohort of first-time, full-time degree or certificate-seeking students at Chesapeake, 28.4% graduated within 150% of normal time and another 22.7% transferred to another two- or four-year college or university. The combined graduation and transfer rate was 51.1%.


Financial Assistance Information

Cross-referenced in this catalog: Student Financial Assistance  

The information provided at www.chesapeake.edu/finaid/ includes eligibility requirements, application forms and procedures, satisfactory progress standards, cost of attendance, types of financial aid programs, disbursement of funds and return of Title IV assistance. Further information is available from the Financial Aid Office. 


Institutional Security Policies and Annual Report on Crime Statistics 

Cross-referenced in this catalog: Institutional Security Policies and Annual Report on Crime Statistics  

This report includes institutional policies concerning campus security, such as policies covering alcohol and drug use, crime prevention, the reporting of crimes, sexual assault, and other matters. The report also includes statistics for the previous three years on federally prescribed reportable crimes.  


Student Right-to-Know Athlete Report

As a College offering athletically-related student aid, Chesapeake also maintains detailed information on enrollment, awards, and graduation and transfer-out rates for student athletes. This information is available in the Student Right-to-Know/Student Athlete Report (https://letsgoskipjacks.com/information/Student_Concerns/index). 

In accordance to the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, information on student activities offered by the College, support services offered to individuals with disabilities, career and placement services both before and after enrollment, and policies related to transfer of credits from other institutions, are provided under student services at http://www.chesapeake.edu/students/. Further details can be obtained upon request from the Office of the Dean for Students.


11998 Higher Education Amendments.