I’m part of a sports team at my college and last fall semester my GPA went to a 2.9 because of an incomplete for one of my classes. My coach likes to keep tabs on everyone’s grades and when he heard about my grades he told me that even though he isn’t allowed he will tell my parents about my grades if I don’t get better. Can he do that? He knows very well that I have strict parents, especially when it comes to my grades. Now he’s asking me to meet up with him, most likely to talk in further detail of the situation. What do I do?
No, he’s not allowed unless you consent to it. Not sure what you can do. He holds all the cards because your membership on the team depends on his approval. It’s kind of like when you’re interviewing for a job and the person asks (a woman) if she has young children at home. It’s illegal to ask that, but she wants the job so she’d sabotage her chances if she objected.
I suppose you can have a talk with the coach. Tell him you’d prefer if your parents not be brought into the conversation. Then tell him your detailed plan for improving your GPA.
FERPA makes you the sole party responsible for releasing your grades, your coach cannot release your grades unless you give permission.
brantly’s advice is good- make sure he understands that you will put a huge effort into improving your GPA, incentive or no incentive. I wouldn’t mention FERPA/legal restrictions at first because that might just antagonize the conversation further. If he insists on telling your parents your grades despite your conversation, I don’t know if there’s someone in administration who you can contact.
Depends on how valuable his sport is at his college. That’s the problem with college athletics. Coaches of money sports are untouchable by college administration. That’s how people like Sandusky were able to get away with what they did for so long. And why students with a fourth-grade reading level were admitted to UNC for their basketball skills.
I would flat out say, “That would be a FERPA violation” if he brings up telling your parents in the meeting. Just that one sentence should be enough – he likely has been trained in FERPA, and knows this already. He is counting on the fact that you don’t know it.
Then I would move on to tell him how you plan to improve your GPA. Likely he has a couple of concerns. One could be that the administration tracks GPAs by team – so you are hurting the team stats. Another is that he may think you might quit the sport if you can’t keep your grades up. Or if this is your freshman year, that it only gets harder, and he might not be able to count on you because you might become ineligible. I wouldn’t make excuses – just have a plan for improving (can you complete the work and improve your grade in that class?)
The sport isn’t valuable as other sports, most people don’t know we even had that kind of sport in the school. I’m also a junior and I’ve been on the team since freshman year. I told him I can always retake the class and get an A and the grade would be replaced, but it seems that’s not enough for him.
Short answer: No. It’s a violation of FERPA.
It would be a FERPA violation to tell your parents, but it would be completely within his rights to not give you any playing time if you don’t get your grades up.
How many laps would you like to run?
Okay, so this is important information. If it’s not Alabama football, you have more leverage. (Not that the Alabama football coach can do this, but administrators are more likely to look the other way because football runs the school.)
Just tell him flat out that you do not give your consent (use the word “consent”) for him to disclose (use the word “disclose”) your grades to your parents. If he doesn’t seem to care about your consent, then say that you know that Ferpa forbids him from disclosing your grades without your consent. If he still doesn’t care, then go to the Ferpa compliance officer at your school.
I am interested that all you are worried about is getting in trouble with Mom and Dad- not about your GPA or your post college life.
You aren’t 10 or 13 or 16 anymore: step up and take responsibility for yourself. Your team is important to you, you know your coach keeps tabs on grades, you knew that you had an imcomplete (and why), and you knew the hit your GPA was going to take. Coulda/woulda/shoulda: why didn’t you go to your coach pro-actively and say something along the lines of:
‘coach, I messed up, and I’ve got an incomplete in X subject, but I’ve talked to the prof and If I finish it by X date, s/he will give me [this] grade, and my GPA will back up where it should be’. Would have been better if you had done it before he called you on it, but you can still do it now in that meeting.
The threat to call your parents is a red herring here, but if he says it again you can say “actually, now that I am over 18, I am the only one who can talk about my grades, and I may have messed up here, but I am taking responsibility for it now.”
I think he is just trying to incentivize you to do better…clearly what you are doing isn’t working, so you need to up your game.
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Make sure you read the chapters /do the homework.
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Go to Professor’s office hours early in the semester. Ask this question: “I know this is a really difficult class-- what are some of the common mistakes students make and how can I avoid them?”
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If you have problems with the homework, go to Prof’s office hours. If they have any “help sessions” or “study sessions” or “recitations” or any thing extra, go to them.
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Form a study group with other kids in your dorm/class.
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Don’t do the minimum…for STEM classes do extra problems. You can buy books that just have problems for calculus or physics or whatever. Watch videos on line about the topic you are studying.
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Go to the writing center if you need help with papers/math center for math problems (if they have them)
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If things still are not going well, get a tutor.
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Read this book: How to Become a Straight-A Student: The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less by Cal Newport. It helps you with things like time management and how to figure out what to write about for a paper, etc.
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Go to class!