Investigation regarding Sept.11 attack seeps into OU

by Laura M. Schneider
Senior Staff Writer

Ohio University is one of several U.S. universities contacted by federal agents requesting student information in the investigation of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"Ohio University has been contacted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and is complying with their request for student information in a manner that is consistent with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act," OU spokesman Jack Jeffery said.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act prohibits colleges from releasing students' personal information without their permission. But a spokesman from the U.S. Department of Education said an exception can be made if there is a health or safety emergency requiring such information.

"We're advising that (colleges) may release student records to federal investigators in connection with the recent terrorist attacks under the health and safety exception of the law called FERPA," he said.

Student records include transcripts, grades and student financial aid information.

A FBI spokesman said he could not confirm whom the investigations are targeting.

"What I can say is only that the Cincinnati division of the FBI, which includes the Athens area, has been involved, in various ways, in the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks," FBI spokesman Ed Boldt said.

Boldt could not verify that universities have been contacted.

The Department of Education spokesman said the agency has been contacted by about 30 schools and educational associations in regards to the release of student records. Those universities were scattered across the nation, he said.

The spokesman could not verify whether the students were those in the country on student visas, as one news source reported.

Nine of 23 California State University campuses also confirmed that federal officials had contacted them during the past few weeks, spokeswoman Colleen Bentley-Adler said.

Officials asked for the names of one or two students at each campus with the exception of the Fresno campus, she said.

Agents of the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations requested a list of all 736 international students at the Fresno campus, said spokesperson Tom Uribes of California State University in Fresno, Calif. The FBI also contacted the university.

Uribes said about 25 students, mostly from Middle Eastern countries, have withdrawn from the university.

Jeffery said he could not specify the number of OU students about whom the FBI requested information.