Solomon Amendment

The Solomon Amendment is a federal law that allows military recruiters to access certain 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 Columbia University’s FERPA directory information list. However, if the student has submitted a request through the University Registrar to restrict the release of Directory Information, then no information from the student's education record will be released under the Solomon Amendment. Detailed information on withholding Directory Information is located on the Office of the University Registrar website.

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

Name

Address

Telephone (not specific if local or permanent)

Age and date of birth

Place of birth

Level of education

Academic major

Degrees awarded

Educational institution in which the student was most recently enrolled

Institutional E-mail Address

Procedure for releasing information to military recruiter:

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: