Mitchell Technical College is committed to preserving the confidentiality, security, and privacy of all personal information collected from students and others. Information collected by the college will not be used for any purpose other than for the operation of the college and to ensure delivery of the services that students need and request. MTC will not sell, rent, or lease any student information to any third parties.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education.
FERPA applies once a student begins taking any course offered by the college and thereafter covers all records relating to the student’s status as such at the college, no matter when the records are created or received. For instance, applicants who apply and are not admitted or choose not to attend are not classified as students for FERPA purposes, but once a student registers, his or her application file and subsequent information secured by the college becomes a FERPA-protected student record. Student status does not begin until a student begins taking at least one course at the college either on campus or online.
Any record that can be linked to a specific student, whether by name, by social security number, by student ID, or through any other kind of personally identifiable information (e.g., transcripts, financial records, assignments, etc.) is covered. Some student records are known as "directory information" – things like address, phone number, dates of enrollment, etc. – and these can be disclosed without the student’s consent unless the student specifically asks that they be kept private.
Mitchell Technical College shall take every precaution to maintain adequate physical, procedural and technical security with respect to our offices and information storage facilities so as to prevent any loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure or modification of the user's personal information under our control.
Student information, including personally identifiable information, grades, and coursework, is stored in secure locations with proper access controls; the availability of said information is strictly limited to MTC faculty and staff with a valid need to know. Mitchell Technical College may share student PII to a third party, such as to providers of financial aid or federal or state authorities, in accordance to the exceptions listed in MTC Policy 1061. In cases when MTC shares student PII to a third party or over the internet, that information is shared using secure encryption methods.
Mitchell Technical College courses are housed within the Jenzabar Learning Management System (LMS). Jenzabar provides a secure environment for faculty to post assignments and tests while ensuring privacy of individual student grades. (Jenzabar’s privacy policy can be found here: https://www.jenzabar.com/jenzabar-privacy-policy .) Students and faculty accessing the LMS use a secure single-sign-on from the MyTech portal. Mitchell Technical College issues each student and employee a unique username for access to the MyTech portal. The username and password identifies users to the system on each subsequent visit. Students and faculty are instructed to safely secure their username/password and they accept responsibility for the security of their personal passwords.