Richard Read reports:
University of Oregon Provost Frances Bronet acted decisively last month after the school received nationwide criticism for accessing a rape survivor’s therapy records for a lawsuit.
Bronet assured students in a March 20 memo that UO’s counseling center would keep records confidential barring extraordinary circumstances. She urged them to use university mental-health services without fear.
Meanwhile, The Oregonian/OregonLive has learned, the head of the University Counseling and Testing Center significantly weakened confidentiality safeguards in a policy statement she wrote with UO’s legal department.
Director Shelly Kerr wrote in an internal April 3 email obtained by the news organization that she worked with university attorneys to draft the new confidentiality policy. “I want to be sure that the information on our web and printed materials are as clear and accurate as possible,” she wrote.
But the new policy, already in effect, contradicts promises Bronet made and greatly expands the number of exceptions that could be cited as justification to break confidentiality. Multiple changes to the former policy include elimination of a requirement for written permission from a student to release information, a step that Bronet described as mandatory.
Read more on The Oregonian.