Privacy, Access and Storage of Student Academic Records

Wake Forest University complies with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) with respect to security of and access to student records.

Student academic records maintained in electronic form by the Office of the University Registrar are password protected with access restricted to individuals who have a legitimate “need to know” based on the responsibilities and duties expected to be performed by the individual. Individuals in positions that need to change records have a higher level of access than those who need “view only” access to the records. The registrar reviews requests for levels of records access and access is denied in cases where the “need to know” cannot be supported.

The computer systems and the associated fail-over systems housing these records are maintained by University Information Systems in two redundant data center facilities. Systems in each data center are backed up nightly to tape storage media in the alternate data center. Additionally, weekly backups are encrypted and sent to an off- site backup facility. The data center facilities are protected by uninterruptible power supplies and generators, and are monitored 24/7. In addition to password protection with access control, these records are protected by two levels of firewalls, and are segregated into protected virtual networks utilizing private IP addressing.

How to Access a Student’s Academic Record?

In order to access a student’s academic record, the student must release his or her record through Proxy Access, a system that grants access to view certain academic records.

What is Proxy Access?

Wake Forest students can grant others access to view certain pieces of information that is normally available in their WIN account. This is termed granting “proxy access,” and the other person is referred to as the “proxy.”  The most common Wake Forest students can grant others access to view certain pieces of their information. This is termed granting “proxy access,” and the other person is referred to as the “proxy.”  The most common scenario is for a student to grant a parent or partner access to their information; however, the student can choose anyone who has an e-mail address. By granting proxy access the student is giving Wake Forest permission to share the selected information with that individual. This permission is necessary to comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

The proxy/student relationship is controlled by the student. The student can create proxy user accounts and assign access to specific information. Proxy users can potentially view items such as a student’s class schedule, mid-term and final grades, academic transcript, and student holds. The student can reset a PIN for their proxy and can also choose to stop proxy access to their information. Requests to access student academic information and to become a proxy should be made directly to the student.

Other Information and Hypothetical Scenarios

For any additional information, questions and/or concerns, please visit our Student FAQs and Proxy FAQs.