What does it mean for a student to be “confidential”?
A confidential student is a student who has suppressed their directory information, which means that no information can be released without their written permission, not even that they are a student at the university. They have usually done so for legal or safety reasons.

How can I tell if a student is confidential? Will Canvas tell me?
Unfortunately, confidentiality does not display in Canvas. To check if a student is confidential, you will need to go to My.OregonState.edu -> Faculty Class List -> your current class. There you will see if a student is confidential, as displayed in the image below:

An image showing a sample class list for Anthropology 101. The first student in the list is Eileen Star. Underneath her name is an orange label that says "CONFIDENTIAL"

How do I answer when someone contacts me and asks about a confidential student?
“I have no information about that person.” You cannot release any information, not even the fact that they are a student.

How do I serve confidential students?
At OSU, we serve confidential students via any platform requiring an ONID login (e.g., Canvas, OSU email) and in person or via Zoom with photo ID (OSU or government-issued ID). We are not able to serve confidential students over the phone, which is something they agree to when they designate themselves as confidential. If a confidential student does call, you should say, "I am sorry but I'm not able to find anyone with that name in my class. Can you send me an email with your information so that I can research later today?"