Privacy and Security Commitment

Our Promise to You

Dallas College's Privacy Commitment is based on two principles. We promise to:

Comply with all the applicable local, state and federal laws and regulations; and
Protect your privacy while still offering relevant, personalized service.

Dallas College is bound by the Texas Public Information Act and the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Continue reading for more detailed information about Dallas College's Privacy and Security Commitment.

Texas Public Information Act

The Texas Public Information Act requires disclosure of information by a public body -- unless the law specifically protects the information. Most information kept by a public body is public under the Act. The State Attorney General enforces this Act. View additional information about the Texas Public Information Act.

Calculation of Business Days and COVID-19 in Response to Public Information Act Requests

The Texas Attorney General's Office (AG) has provided all governmental bodies clarification regarding the calculation of business days during the State response to the coronavirus as follows:

The AG states that all governmental bodies should consider the following guidelines when calculating business days:

Holidays observed by the governmental body are not business days.
Weekends are not business days.
Skeleton crew days are not business days.
A day on which a governmental body’s administrative offices are closed is not a business day.
If a governmental body has closed its physical offices for purposes of a public health or epidemic response or if a governmental body is unable to access its records on a calendar day, then such day is not a business day, even if staff continues to work remotely or staff is present but involved directly in the public health or epidemic response.

The District will continue to respond to public information requests and provide the documents responsive as long as it is able to access the records requested. However, since the District has closed its physical offices due to the epidemic response, the District may be unable to access certain records on a calendar day and such day is not a business day. The District will respond to said requests once the District has opened its physical offices.

Please continue to send all your Public Information Requests to Rosalind Jeffers at: rjeffers@dallascollege.edu and copy Torsha McCarty at tmccarty@dallascollege.edu.

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Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA)

FERPA protects educational records of a student from public disclosure without written permission of the student. Although many exceptions to the Act exist, the exceptions are very limited. The Department of Education enforces this Act. View additional information about FERPA.

Download the FERPA Release/Proxy Authorization Form (PDF - 155KB).

Directory Information

Unless you request that your information be withheld, to comply with FERPA, Dallas College may release information classified as "directory information" to third parties without the written consent of the student. Directory information includes:

name;
home address;
date and place of birth;
telephone number;
email addresses;
field of study;
photograph;
dates of attendance;
enrollment status, i.e., full-time, part-time, undergraduate, graduate;
degrees, certificates and other honors and awards received;
the type of award received, i.e., academic, technical, tech-prep, or continuing education;
participation in officially recognized activities;
weight and height of members of athletic teams;
student classification;
name of the most recent previous institution attended.

The primary purpose of directory information is to allow the college to disclose this information, without a student's written permission, to the public and/or anyone inquiring in person, by phone, or in writing, and to use this information within the college without a student's written permission.

For example, the college may use the information in college publications, such as the honor roll or other recognition lists; graduation programs; and sports activity sheets, showing weight and height of team members.

Directory information may be provided to outside organizations which include, but are not limited to, companies that manufacture class rings or publish yearbooks, Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, National Society of Collegiate Scholars, and other academic honor societies for students who are eligible to be considered for membership.

The college may disclose directory information unless the student provides written notice to the college to protect it from disclosure.

This notice is available at the Admissions/Registrar's Office upon request.

This notification authorizes the college not to list directory information in its publications or to disclose it to the public. This notice will remain in effect until the student withdraws it.

No telephone requests for directory information will be accepted.

If a student chooses to withhold any or all directory information, that information cannot be released any other party, including, but not limited to, another institution of education, prospective employer, family, friends, the news media, advisors, student activities, and honors societies.

Therefore, if another party seeks confirmation of status as a student, the college will not be able to provide that information without written consent from the student.

The college is not responsible for anything that may or may not occur as a result of honoring your request to withhold directory information.

Transcripts or academic records are not released without a student's written consent except as allowed by law.

Students may request that all or any part of the directory information be withheld from the public by giving written notice to the Registrar's Office during the first 12 class days of a fall or spring semester or the first 4 class days of a summer session.

Students may protect their directory information at any time during the academic year if they are unable to provide written notice within these time frames.

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Information collected by Dallas College

Dallas College's web servers only record the visitor's Internet Protocol (IP) address.

We also use additional services to record and review additional information about our users to improve the user experience, our services and gauge the effectiveness of our advertising. If you don’t want to participate in this tracking, you can always opt out by using an Internet browser or plugin that blocks advertising or tracking services.

These services include:

Dallas Observer/The Trade Desk – users can opt out of advertising and tracking by clicking the "ad choices" link at the top of each ad or by visiting adsrvr.org.
Google services – including Google Analytics, Google’s Display Advertising, Google Display Network Impression Reporting, the DoubleClick Campaign Manager Integration, and Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting. You can review the information Google has about you in Google’s Ads Settings and opt out of the tracking at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
Facebook – you can review the information Facebook stores about you or to update your ad preferences on Facebook.
Siteimprove - used for web analytics and quality control.
Belo + Company - analytics tracking pixel. Learn about Belo + Company's privacy policy.
Clarus Corporation - collects non-personally identifiable information with pixel tracking for targeted advertising and tracking purposes. This anonymous data includes, but is not limited to, information such as a web visitor’s IP address, web pages which have been viewed by a web visitor, date and time, domain type, and responses by a web visitor to an advertisement delivered by us or a third party advertising technology vendor. Users can opt out of tracking and targeted advertising from Clarus through Simpli.fi.

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Cookies and how they are used

We use cookies to:

Store visitors' preferences;
Record session information;
Record user-specific information on what pages visitors visit;
Customize webpage content on visitors' browser type or other information that the visitor sends;
Show Dallas College ads to people who have previously visited our website.

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How to view your information

Currently enrolled (or recently enrolled) credit students who are registered at one of Dallas College's nine locations can obtain access to their personal information through eConnect, a secure web interface that requires you to enter your student identification number and a password. The following information is available to registered students:

Class schedule information
Email address
Financial Aid information
Grades
Payment information
Student ID number
Student Information Profile
Registration summary/fee receipts that contain:
- Address
- Class schedule information
- Student ID number

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How to update/correct your student record

Currently enrolled (or recently enrolled students) credit students can correct their Student Information Profile and email address online through eConnect.

If any of the remaining personal information in your student record contains an error, please visit the Registrar's Office and request that the error be corrected. Make sure you take a photo identification card with you.

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Security

Dallas College has carefully implemented the information technology industry's best practices in security measures to ensure that:

the information you entrust to us is not intercepted or abused; and
to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control.

Industry standard technologies like Secure Socket Layers (SSL) and Transport Security Layer (TSL) are used to protect your credit card information, email address, social security number and other private information so it cannot be read as it travels on the Internet. Digicert, the leading provider of digital trust services, provides secure certificates for encrypting transactions with Dallas College's secure systems, including eConnect. For Digicert's security information please visit their website at digicert.com.

TouchNet Information Systems, the leading provider of secure commerce for colleges and universities, provides secure payment processing for your online transactions with Dallas College. For TouchNet Information Systems' security information, please visit their website at touchnet.com.

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Please send comments or questions to Dallas College's chief risk officer.