PROCESS FOR REQUESTING STUDENT EMAIL LISTS

Faculty and staff members conducting research or acting as an advisor on a student project may request a list of UW-L student email addresses to use in their survey research by completing the following:

  1. Design the survey. In designing survey research, students should keep in mind that due to FERPA limitations, they may not be able to get access to some information about their individual sample members from the institution (e.g., race / ethnicity, gender, etc.); it may be best to plan to ask these as questions in the survey if analyses will need to include them. Aggregate sample demographics will be provided if requested for use in response analyses.

  2. Determine an appropriate sample size and an expected response rate. Students conducting survey research should work with their faculty advisors and are encouraged to contact the Statistical Consulting Center for assistance in determining an appropriate sample size for their research.

  3. Complete the IRB approval process. For more information visit www.uwlax.edu/grants/compliances/irb.htm.

    Classroom projects are not automatically exempt from IRB review. Exempt status for each course must be obtained prior to the release of email addresses. Exemptions are granted in perpetuity unless course content or procedures change substantially. Student projects that differ from the previously exempted course process must be reviewed by the IRB.

  4. Submit your request for student email addresses to ITS using the Enterprise Work Order Request.
    5. Select the request type of IT Services: Data Request.
    1. Requests for samples must be made by faculty or staff advisors or class instructors working with students. Samples will not be provided directly to students.
    2. Requests for non-class-based projects will be checked with the University FERPA officer and the Office of Institutional Research will email the researcher to request a copy of the IRB approval.
    3. Please allow 10 business days for processing your request.  Samples will be emailed to the faculty or staff advisor as an Excel file within this timeframe unless we contact you otherwise.

IRB approval does not guarantee a request for a sample will be completed. Due to FERPA regulations some information about students cannot be shared. For example, we cannot provide samples based on gender or race/ethnicity criteria. In these instances, we recommend you consider alternative methods for reaching these target groups, such as working through appropriate student organizations. For more information on FERPA visit www.uwlax.edu/records/ferpa.

The following document provides more information and background about the sample request process: www.uwlax.edu/facultysenate/44th/FS Mtgs/10-1-09/Proposed process for req email addresses for surveys.htm.

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