Dear students,
Vanderbilt is committed to protecting your private and personal information, as we are required to do by the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Following the two subpoenas for your education records issued by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in response to the petition for election filed by the Vanderbilt Graduate Workers United and the United Auto Workers, we have heard from more than 130 of you, expressing how important the privacy of your information is and objecting to the disclosure of your records. We are standing up for your right to have these concerns heard.
Even after lengthy discussions, the union continued to demand that we disclose your private information, and the NLRB refused to exempt your education records from disclosure or pause the proceedings to address this vitally important privacy concern. So, on October 29 we filed a complaint in the Federal District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee seeking to stop the NLRB and its Regional Director from proceeding under what we contend are unlawful union election regulations that would not provide the fair process we believe objecting students are entitled to.
On October 30, the Judge issued a temporary restraining order, prohibiting the NLRB from taking any further action on the pending election petition, including compelling Vanderbilt to disclose any information from student education records, until further notice. The court has scheduled a status conference on the temporary restraining order for next Monday, November 4.
We remain committed to prioritizing the protection of your privacy and will continue providing you with updates as the process continues.
Sincerely,
C. Cybele Raver
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
Vanderbilt University
