Career Center Professional FAQ

As authorized university staff, you can access:

• Employment outcomes data students have submitted or that your institution has entered
• Student profile information: name, email, major, class year, academic program
• Affinity group memberships — including groups that may reveal sensitive identity information
• Platform activity: career searches, resources accessed, saved jobs and bookmarks, login frequency

Reminder: Access to student data should be limited to what is necessary for providing career services. Review your institution’s data access policies and uConnect’s role-based access controls to ensure your permissions are appropriately scoped.

Affinity group membership can reveal sensitive information about a student’s identity — including sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, or veteran status. This information is subject to heightened privacy protections. Appropriate uses include:

• Connecting students with relevant opportunities, resources, or programs they may not know about
• Ensuring students from underrepresented groups have equitable access to career services

Inappropriate uses include:

• Sharing affinity group membership with employers, colleagues without a need to know, or any third party
• Making assumptions about a student’s identity, qualifications, or preferences based solely on affinity group membership
• Referencing a student’s affinity group membership in advising conversations without the student having raised it first

Misuse of affinity group data — including sharing it with employers, colleagues without a need to know, or using it in ways that could disadvantage a student — may violate FERPA, applicable state privacy laws, and your institution’s anti-discrimination policies. If you are uncertain whether a particular use of affinity group data is appropriate, consult your institution’s FERPA officer or legal counsel before proceeding. Report any suspected misuse of student data to your institution’s privacy officer and to uConnect at security@gouconnect.com.

Best Practice: Treat affinity group membership with the same discretion you would apply to any sensitive personal characteristic. When in doubt, do not reference it unless the student raises it themselves.

No. uConnect data should not be shared with employers without the student’s explicit consent. This includes career search history, affinity group memberships, platform activity, and employment outcomes. If an employer requests information about a student, refer the employer to the student directly and advise the student of their right to control what information they share.

Be direct and clear. Students deserve to make an informed choice. A suggested approach:

“Affinity groups are optional and don’t affect your access to any core features on the platform. If you join a group, it helps us connect you with relevant resources — but our career center staff will be able to see which groups you’ve joined. Some groups may reflect sensitive aspects of your identity, so please only join groups you’re comfortable with us seeing.”

Do not minimize the disclosure or suggest the information is completely confidential within the career center — it is not.

Validate the concern — it is legitimate. Explain clearly:

If they have specific concerns, they can contact the career center (you), uConnect directly at security@gouconnect.com, or their institution’s FERPA officer

As university career center staff, you have access to their profile, activity, affinity group memberships, and any outcomes data they’ve submitted

This access is governed by FERPA, which allows university officials with legitimate educational interest to access student records

uConnect does not share their data with employers, advertisers, or outside parties without consent.

Students have the right to request deletion of their personal information. Walk them through the process:

• They should submit a request through the career center (the recommended path, as your institution coordinates with uConnect)
• The process typically takes up to 45 days

If your institution has a FERPA officer or privacy office, loop them in for formal deletion requests.

Yes — career search history within the platform is not shared with employers. Employers cannot see which students have viewed their listings or searched for positions at their company. Only university career center staff and uConnect (for technical purposes) can see platform activity. Students should still exercise caution on external employer websites they access through links in the platform, as those sites have their own privacy policies.

Your institution is the recommended first point of contact for data access requests. Steps:

• If your career center has administrative access to export student data, you can fulfill the request directly
• For requests you cannot fulfill, contact uConnect at security@gouconnect.com with your institution’s authorization
• uConnect will provide the student’s data within 45 days of a verified request

Check with your institution’s FERPA officer or privacy office to ensure your handling of the request is consistent with institutional policy.

Before using platform data for proactive outreach, confirm with your institution’s FERPA officer that your intended use falls within the “legitimate educational interest” exception. Document the basis for your outreach in case the student or a third party later questions how you obtained the information that prompted your contact. If your institution has a formal early alert or student success system, consider whether platform data should be funneled through that system rather than acted on informally.

Report it immediately through the following channels:

• Contact uConnect at security@gouconnect.com right away
• Notify your institution’s IT security or privacy officer
• Do not attempt to investigate the breach yourself or access additional data to ‘check’ the scope

uConnect has documented incident response procedures and will coordinate with your institution. Your institution may also have breach notification obligations under FERPA and state law.

For career center operational questions, contact your uConnect client success representative.

For security or privacy questions: security@gouconnect.com

uConnect responds to all inquiries within 10 business days.

Yes. Maintain a log of any student data access, correction, or deletion requests you receive, including the date, the student’s name, the nature of the request, and what action was taken. This documentation protects your institution in the event of a compliance audit or legal challenge. Share the log with your institution’s FERPA officer or privacy office as required by your institution’s records management policy.

Not in the current version of the platform. The ability for career center staff to view individual student AI Search queries is a capability that may be made available in a future release. At this time, AI Search activity is not surfaced as part of the student activity view accessible to staff. We will update this FAQ as additional AI Search functionality becomes available.

Not in the current version of the platform. If a student asks whether their AI Search activity is visible to career center staff, you can let them know that AI Search queries are not currently surfaced as part of the student activity view accessible to staff. The ability for career center staff to view individual AI Search queries may be made available in a future release, at which point this guidance will be updated.

What you can tell students now: their AI Search queries are transmitted to third-party service providers (Anthropic for processing and Langfuse for quality monitoring) as described in the Student Privacy FAQ and Privacy Policy. You may refer students to those resources if they have questions about how their data is handled.

Reassure the student that their search history is not shared with employers or any outside party. If the student wants their search history deleted, walk them through the data deletion request process. Treat any sensitive search topics (e.g., searches related to disability accommodations, mental health careers, or LGBTQ+ resources) with the same discretion you would apply to affinity group membership.

No. AI Search recommendations are informational tools, not authoritative assessments of a student’s qualifications or career fit. When referencing AI Search outputs in an advising context, treat them as a starting point for conversation — not as a definitive assessment. Students have the right to understand how automated recommendations are generated and to disregard them. If a student questions a recommendation, encourage them to explore additional resources and to raise any concerns with you directly.