It is the policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia that personal information about citizens will be collected only to the extent necessary to provide the service or benefit desired; that only appropriate information will be collected; that the citizen shall understand the reason the information is collected and be able to examine their personal record which is maintained by a public body.
What this Privacy Policy Covers
- This Privacy Policy covers VHCC’s treatment of personally identifiable information that VHCC collects when you are on the VHCC site, and when you use VHCC’s on-line services.
- This policy does not apply to the practices of companies that VHCC does not own or control, or to people that VHCC does not employ or manage.
Policy Statement
VHCC protects the privacy of student records in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) a federal law that governs access to student education records. The College will not permit access to, or the release of, educational records without the consent of the student or eligible parent or legal guardian to anyone other than those permitted by law. The College will publish an Annual Notification of Rights under FERPA in the College Catalog.
Students are afforded the following rights under FERPA:
- The right to inspect and review their educational record within forty-five (45) days of submitting a request for access to such record.
- The right to request an amendment to their educational record in the event that the student thinks the record is inaccurate or misleading.
- The right to provide written consent before the College discloses personally identifiable information contained in their educational record, except to the extent FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent.
- The right to file a complaint at the College or with the United States Department of Education, if they think that the college has failed to comply with this policy.
Information Collection and Use
- Directory information consists of the following:
- Student name
- Current enrollment status (full time or part time)
- Participation in officially recognized activities and sports
- Weight and height of athletic team members
- Degrees, honors and awards received
- Major field of study
- Dates of attendance (not individual class sessions)
- Number of credit hours enrolled
- VHCC collects personally identifiable information when you register for certain VHCC web services. VHCC may also receive personally identifiable information from our business partners.
- When you apply for an on-line service with VHCC, we ask for your name, email address, birthdate, gender, phone, zip code, occupation, curriculum, industry, and comments.
- VHCC may also automatically receive and record information on our server logs from your browser including your IP address, VHCC cookie information and the page you requested.
VHCC uses information for two general purposes:
- to fulfill your requests for certain services, and
- to contact you with information and new services.
If you find errors in the information that you submitted to VHCC through the website or want to examine your information, you should contact the webmaster by email at webmaster@86899805.com. You may also contact the Webmaster by writing to Webmaster, Virginia Highlands Community College, P.O. Box 828, Abingdon, Virginia, 24212.
Information Sharing and Disclosure
- VHCC may disclose information from a student’s educational record without consent under certain conditions specified in FERPA regulations:
- To school officials with a legitimate educational interest.
- To officials of another school where the student seeks or intends to enroll.
- To government officials in connection with the audit and evaluation of federal and state-supported education programs.
- To persons or organizations in connection with financial aid.
- To persons or organizations conducting research, studies or data collection on behalf of the College for the development of tests, administration of financial aid, or the improvement of instruction.
- To accrediting organizations.
- To a parent or legal guardian of the student, provided the parent or legal guardian has demonstrated that the student is a dependent for tax purposes.
- In order to comply with a judicial order or subpoena provided the College makes a reasonable effort to inform the student in advance so that the student may take protective action, except when the College is legally required to not disclose the existence of a subpoena.
- To appropriate officials in connection with a health or safety emergency.
- Information the College has designated Directory information.
- To the victim of an alleged perpetrator of a crime of violence or a non-forcible sex offense concerning the final results of a disciplinary hearing with respect to the alleged crime;
- To any third party the final results of a disciplinary proceeding related to a crime of violence or non-forcible sex offense if the student who is the alleged perpetrator is found to have violated College rules or policies.
- To parents of a student under age 21 when the student has violated College rules or criminal laws concerning alcohol or drugs.
- In response to an ex parte order in connection with the investigation or prosecution of terrorism.
- All officials shall document when information is disclosed.
Cookies
VHCC does not currently use cookies, but may set and access VHCC cookies on your computer.
A cookie is a small amount of data, which often includes an anonymous unique identifier, which is sent to your browser from a web site's computers and stored on your computer's hard drive.
Each website can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser's preferences allow it, but (to protect your privacy) your browser only permits a website to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites.
Choices About Cookies
You can configure your browser to accept all cookies, reject all cookies, or notify you when a cookie is set. (Each browser is different, so check the "Help" menu of your browser to learn how to change your cookie preferences.)
Security
- In certain areas VHCC uses standard e-mail or databases to store data transmissions.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
- VHCC may edit this policy from time to time. If we make any substantial changes we will notify you by posting a prominent announcement on our pages.