Student Handbook 2023-24 > Student Records and Privacy > Privacy Policies > Assessment policies

Assessment policies

In order to collect useful data for assessment and improvement and ensure the ongoing privacy of members of the Olin community, the Office of Institutional Research & Decision Support (IRDS) has adopted policies relating to privacy. IRDS will make all reasonable attempts to ensure the following:

• All data submitted to IRDS is held as confidential, unless otherwise specified at the time of collection or released through the consent of the individual.
• Reporting of data for public use is done anonymously and in aggregate.
• Reporting of data for internal use maintains the appropriate level of anonymity and/or confidentiality to minimize risk to individuals and maximize its use in the assessment process.
• All requests for data from IRDS are analyzed to assess the privacy risks for individual community members prior to the release of any information.
• All IRDS files that contain information about individual community members are kept in secure physical or electronic locations.
• IRDS maintains privacy and allows access to its records in keeping with all federal, state and local laws and regulations.
• IRDS conducts its affairs in accordance with the Code of Ethics of the Association for Institutional Research.