Admissions & Aid

Solomon Amendment Requests of Student Records

 

Military Requests of Student Records:  Solomon Amendment

The 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 SMC's FERPA directory information list. Data will not be released to the Military for students with a Military Hold.

"Student Recruitment Information" or "Solomon Information"

  • Name
  • Address
  • Email address provided by Santa Monica College
  • Telephone (is not defined as Directory information at SMC)
  • Age
  • Place of birth 
  • Level of education (SMC does not use nor define class levels. All students are undergraduates).
  • Academic major
  • Degrees received
  • Educational institution in which the student was most recently enrolled

Procedure for Releasing Information to Military Recruiter

  1. Under the Solomon Amendment, the information will be released for military recruitment purposes only.
  2. 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:
    1. Army: Army, Army Reserve, Army National Guard
    2. Navy: Navy, Navy Reserve
    3. Marine Corps: Marine Corps, Marine Corps Reserve
    4. Air Force: Air Force, Air Force Reserve, Air Force National Guard
    5. Coast Guard: Coast Guard, Coast Guard Reserve
  3. The request must be submitted in writing on letterhead by an authorized representative. It must clearly identify the unit of service requesting the student recruitment information. The requestor must also attest on the letter that they are authorized by the Branch to request Solomon Amendment data.
  4. The request should specify exactly which data fields are being requested and for which student demographics (e.g., Students between the ages of 18-30 who are US citizens).
  5. The authorized recruiter must provide a means for the data to be sent to its destination securely and encrypted using the DoD SAFE website. The pertinent information (URL and key) should be emailed to tovar_esau@smc.edu immediately following the written request for recruitment data.

  6. Requests should be sent to:

    Esau Tovar, Ph.D.
    Dean of Enrollment Services
    Santa Monica College
    1900 Pico Blvd.
    Santa Monica, CA 90405
    tovar_esau@smc.edu