Solomon Amendment & FERPA

Solomon Amendment is a federal law that allows military recruiters to access some address, biographical and academic program information on students age 17 and older.

The Department of Education has determined the Solomon Amendment supersedes most elements of FERPA. An institution is therefore obligated to release data included in the list of “student recruiting infor­mation,” which may or may not match SMU's FERPA directory information list. However, if the student has submitted a request through my.SMU Self Service to the University Registrar Office to restrict the release of his/her Directory Information, then no information from the student's education record will be released under the Solomon Amendment. For more information on directory information.

Definition - "Student Recruitment Information" or "Solomon Information"

  1. Name
  2. Address (home and mailing)
  3. Telephone (home and mailing)
  4. Age (is not defined as Directory information at SMU)
  5. Place of birth (is not defined as Directory information at SMU)
  6. Level of education
  7. Academic major
  8. Degrees received
  9. Educational institution in which the student was most recently enrolled

Procedure for Releasing Information to Military Recruiter

  1. Under the Solomon amendment, information will be released for military recruitment purposes only. The military recruiters may request student recruitment information once each term or semester for each of the 12 eligible units within the five branches of the service:
  2. The request should be submitted in writing on letterhead clearly identifying the unit of service requesting the student recruitment information.
  3. The request should specify whether the information needed is for the current or previous semester.