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Phone Book FAQ

Some information in my on-line phone book entry is wrong. How do I change it?

You can change certain fields yourself, such as email address and your www field (if applicable).

• Go to http://www.niu.edu/niu_ph.html
• Read the directions so you will know how to login to the telnet session that will display
• Select the link for "Connect to the NIU Phone Book system" located at the bottom of this page to open your telnet session
• Login to telnet

Faculty and Staff who want to change all other on-line phone book fields - fill out the Faculty/Staff Directory Information form. *NOTE: Updating your information in the On-Line Phone Book through NIUTEL does not update the information on file at Human Resources.

Students should go to NIU webConnect Signon Menu and log in. Choose Address Change to update your address, phone number, etc. Updating your student information within WebConnect removes the need to call Records and Registration directly to update this information, as WebConnect will automatically update the above information for you.

I changed my permanent address at Registration and Records. Why doesn't ph have the correct address?

Information is updated from Registration and Records twice a semester: just before the start of classes and approximately 30 days after the start of classes.

I'm a new student, why don't I appear in the on-line phone book?

Directory information in the on-line phone book is automatically suppressed for all new students for the first 30 days of a semester. This allows new students time to request FERPA suppression through Registration and Records.

When an entry in the on-line phone book is suppressed, the only information that is publicly available is the alias field and the email field (if available). This means that:

• A search for you by name will not simply return a partial entry, it will return no match.
• A search for you by alias will return the email field (if available), so alias-based e-mail addresses (alias@niu.edu) will still work.When your e-mail account is created, you are given an alias to use for alias-based e-mail addressing. If your directory information is suppressed, you can use your alias to log into ph and view your entry. Instructions for logging in to your alias are included in the instructions for modifying your on-line phone book entry in the first question on this page.

What is FERPA suppression?

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a federal law affecting educational institutions such as Northern Illinois University. As a result of the University's implementation of this statute, when you request FERPA suppression it is nearly total. Not only will your name, address, and phone number be suppressed from the student pages of the printed paper phone book and the on-line phone book, but Registration and Records is not even able to supply information about you to prospective employers. In compliance with federal law, your existence as a student of NIU is concealed.

*NOTE: If you request FERPA suppression, you may also want to change your on-line phone book default alias since the alias is based on your first name initial and your last name.

Return to NIU Online Phone Book