Solomon Amendment
The Solomon Amendment is a federal law that allows military recruiters to access certain information about 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.
Visit our page Withhold or Reverse Withholding of Directory Information for more information.
Solomon Amendment Requests
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:
- Army, Army Reserve, Army National Guard
- Navy, Navy Reserve
- Marine Corps, Marine Corps Reserve
- Air Force, Air Force Reserve, Air Force National Guard
- Coast Guard, Coast Guard Reserve
The request should specify whether the information needed is for the current or previous semester and can be submitted to [email protected].
- 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