University declines to disclose details on Miss America’s dismissal from sorority for hazing

Kira Kazantsev, this year’s Miss America Pageant winner, is known for her women’s health advocacy and her 3.6 GPA while receiving a triple major at Hofstra University in New York. But in April 2013, she was also kicked out of her sorority for hazing pledges.

At the time, Kazantsev served as the head of recruitment of the Alpha Phi chapter at the university, which conducted a months-long investigation into the alleged actions of Kazantsev and other sorority members. Citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, however, university officials have not disclosed the details that led to her removal.

Source: Jezebel, Miss America Was Kicked Out of Her Sorority for Abusive Hazing (9/22/2014).

Former SPLC Attorney Advocate Adam Goldstein:  Assuming that Kazantsev wasn’t found responsible for committing a crime of violence as defined by the FBI, Hofstra is probably correct–it can’t disclose the nature of the hazing under FERPA. 

In fact, until you commit one of those “crimes of violence” (things like forcible sex offenses, murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault) and you’re found responsible by a university panel, the Department’s position is that every single record that identifies a student is an education record, no matter how totally unrelated to their education, or how obviously not protected that record would be by any privacy rights established by common law. 

We rate this: a pretty legitimate use of FERPA