Enrollment prediction services contracts

Dear Todd,

I am writing in response to your request for records received February 29, 2024 and am confirming that it is in progress. Because I must consult with other departments with substantial interest in the determination of the request, I am notifying you of our need to extend under 1 V.S.A. § 318(a)(5) our time for response to up to ten business days from the date of your request. Therefore, you will receive our response to your request by March 14, 2024.

There may be costs associated with complying with this request, which I will confirm once I have more information. The University's policy regarding costs associated with records requests is available at https://www.uvm.edu/sites/default/files/UVM-Policies/policies/cost_assessment.pdf, and additional information is available on our website at https://www.uvm.edu/compliance/public-records. Also, we reserve the prerogative to withhold particular records as allowed by law.

Sincerely,

Office of Compliance and Privacy Services
University of Vermont
P: 802.656.3086<mailto:802.656.3086> / E: public.records@uvm.edu<mailto:public.records@uvm.edu>

PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS INFORMATION<https://www.uvm.edu/compliance/public-records>
Office of Compliance & Privacy Services<https://www.uvm.edu/compliance> • Feedback, Comments, Questions<mailto:compliance@uvm.edu?subject=Feedback,%20Comments,%20Questions>

********************CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE********************
This e-mail and any attachments may contain private, confidential, and privileged information for the sole use of the intended recipient. This information is intended for the recipient and use by authorized addressees only. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately. Any dissemination, distribution, forwarding, printing, copying or otherwise duplicating is strictly prohibited and could violate federal and/or state law.

UVM is subject to the Vermont Public Records Act and communications to and from this email address, including attachments, are subject to disclosure unless exempted under the Act or otherwise applicable law.

University of Vermont
PRA Office
348 Waterman Building
Burlington, VT 05401

February 29, 2024

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Vermont Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

1) All active contracts and accomanying statements of work the university has entered into for predictive machine learning services that aid in the enrollment and recruitment of students. Specifically, this includes services that feed input data provided by the university about current and historical student enrollment into machine learning models in order to make predictions about the probability of future enrollment by individual students, students from geographic regions (e.g. zip code or high school), and/or students belonging to demographic groups (e.g. Black students or first-generation students). Popular providers of predictive enrollment services include, but are not limited to: EAB, RNL (Ruffalo, Noel, Levitz), Mainstay, Othot, and The College Board.

2) Documentation of the machine learning models included in the responsive contracts. Specifically, this includes documents created by the university or provided to the university by the vendor or a third party that describe:

a) Input data—the data the university provides for analysis by the model
b) Output data—the data the model generates for the university to use (e.g., a numerical score, a probability percentage, a letter grade, or other ranking)
c) Model accuracy—metrics such as AUC, false positive/negative rates, sensitivity, specificity, etc. that demonstrate how the model performs at its intended task

I ask that all fees be waived as I am a journalist and intend to used the requested records to publish articles in the public interest and not for any commercial purpose.

If you choose to impose fees, I request a detailed breakdown of the fees, including the hourly wage of each employee involved and an explanation of the employee hours required to fulfill the request.

If you choose to reject this request or redact portions of responsive documents, I ask that you provide a detailed breakdown of the statutory exemptions and associated case law underlying your decision to withhold each/any portions from public review.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 3 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Todd Feathers

View request history, upload responsive documents, and report problems here:
https://www.muckrock.com/

If prompted for a passcode, please enter:
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PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW ADDRESS
For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 159558
263 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115

PLEASE NOTE: This request is not filed by a MuckRock staff member, but is being sent through MuckRock by the above in order to better track, share, and manage public records requests. Also note that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than "MuckRock News" and the department number) requests might be returned as undeliverable.

Dear Todd,

I am following up on your request for records received February 29, 2024 and am confirming that it is still in progress. Because I am still consulting with other departments with substantial interest in the determination of the request, I am notifying you of our need to extend under 1 V.S.A. § 318(a)(5) our time for response to up to ten business days from the date of your request. Therefore, you will receive our response to your request by March 28, 2024.

Sincerely,

Office of Compliance and Privacy Services
University of Vermont
P: 802.656.3086<mailto:802.656.3086> / E: public.records@uvm.edu<mailto:public.records@uvm.edu>

PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS INFORMATION<https://www.uvm.edu/compliance/public-records>

[University of Vermont logo: A white letter V outlined by a dark green shield and the text University of Vermont]<https://uvm.edu/>
********************CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE********************
This e-mail and any attachments may contain private, confidential, and privileged information for the sole use of the intended recipient. This information is intended for the recipient and use by authorized addressees only. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately. Any dissemination, distribution, forwarding, printing, copying or otherwise duplicating is strictly prohibited and could violate federal and/or state law.

UVM is subject to the Vermont Public Records Act and communications to and from this email address, including attachments, are subject to disclosure unless exempted under the Act or otherwise applicable law.

Dear Todd,

I am following up on your request for records received February 29, 2024 and am confirming that it is still in progress. Because I am still consulting with other departments with substantial interest in the determination of the request, I am notifying you of our need to extend under 1 V.S.A. § 318(a)(5) our time for response to up to ten business days from the date of your request. Therefore, you will receive our response to your request by April 11, 2024. I expect to have a more specific response for you before then.

Sincerely,

Office of Compliance and Privacy Services
University of Vermont
P: 802.656.3086<mailto:802.656.3086> / E: public.records@uvm.edu<mailto:public.records@uvm.edu>

PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS INFORMATION<https://www.uvm.edu/compliance/public-records>

[University of Vermont logo: A white letter V outlined by a dark green shield and the text University of Vermont]<https://uvm.edu/>
********************CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE********************
This e-mail and any attachments may contain private, confidential, and privileged information for the sole use of the intended recipient. This information is intended for the recipient and use by authorized addressees only. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately. Any dissemination, distribution, forwarding, printing, copying or otherwise duplicating is strictly prohibited and could violate federal and/or state law.

UVM is subject to the Vermont Public Records Act and communications to and from this email address, including attachments, are subject to disclosure unless exempted under the Act or otherwise applicable law.

Hello Todd,

I am following up on your request for records received February 29, 2024 and am confirming that it is still in progress. Because I am still consulting with other departments with substantial interest in the determination of the request, I am notifying you of our need to extend under 1 V.S.A. § 318(a)(5) our time for response to up to ten business days from the date of your request. Therefore, you will receive our response to your request by April 25, 2024; I will send any updates I have as they are available, as always.

Sincerely,

Office of Compliance and Privacy Services
University of Vermont
P: 802.656.3086<mailto:802.656.3086> / E: public.records@uvm.edu<mailto:public.records@uvm.edu>

PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS INFORMATION<https://www.uvm.edu/compliance/public-records>

[University of Vermont logo: A white letter V outlined by a dark green shield and the text University of Vermont]<https://uvm.edu/>
********************CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE********************
This e-mail and any attachments may contain private, confidential, and privileged information for the sole use of the intended recipient. This information is intended for the recipient and use by authorized addressees only. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately. Any dissemination, distribution, forwarding, printing, copying or otherwise duplicating is strictly prohibited and could violate federal and/or state law.

UVM is subject to the Vermont Public Records Act and communications to and from this email address, including attachments, are subject to disclosure unless exempted under the Act or otherwise applicable law.

Dear Todd,

I am following up on your request for records received February 29, 2024 and am confirming that it is still in progress. Because I am still consulting with other departments with substantial interest in the determination of the request, I am notifying you of our need to extend under 1 V.S.A. § 318(a)(5) our time for response to up to ten business days from the date of your request. Therefore, you will receive our response to your request by May 9, 2024; I will send any updates I have as they are available, as always.

Sincerely,

Office of Compliance and Privacy Services
University of Vermont
P: 802.656.3086<mailto:802.656.3086> / E: public.records@uvm.edu<mailto:public.records@uvm.edu>

PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS INFORMATION<https://www.uvm.edu/compliance/public-records>

[University of Vermont logo: A white letter V outlined by a dark green shield and the text University of Vermont]<https://uvm.edu/>
********************CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE********************
This e-mail and any attachments may contain private, confidential, and privileged information for the sole use of the intended recipient. This information is intended for the recipient and use by authorized addressees only. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately. Any dissemination, distribution, forwarding, printing, copying or otherwise duplicating is strictly prohibited and could violate federal and/or state law.

UVM is subject to the Vermont Public Records Act and communications to and from this email address, including attachments, are subject to disclosure unless exempted under the Act or otherwise applicable law.

Dear Todd,

I am writing with an update on your request for records received February 29, 2024 and am confirming that it is still in progress. Because I am still consulting with other departments with substantial interest in the determination of the request, I am notifying you of our need to extend under 1 V.S.A. § 318(a)(5) our time for response to up to ten business days from the date of your request. Therefore, you will receive our response to your request by May 23, 2024; I will send any updates I have as they are available, as always.

Sincerely,

Office of Compliance and Privacy Services
University of Vermont
P: 802.656.3086<mailto:802.656.3086> / E: public.records@uvm.edu<mailto:public.records@uvm.edu>

PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS INFORMATION<https://www.uvm.edu/compliance/public-records>

[University of Vermont logo: A white letter V outlined by a dark green shield and the text University of Vermont]<https://uvm.edu/>
********************CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE********************
This e-mail and any attachments may contain private, confidential, and privileged information for the sole use of the intended recipient. This information is intended for the recipient and use by authorized addressees only. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately. Any dissemination, distribution, forwarding, printing, copying or otherwise duplicating is strictly prohibited and could violate federal and/or state law.

UVM is subject to the Vermont Public Records Act and communications to and from this email address, including attachments, are subject to disclosure unless exempted under the Act or otherwise applicable law.

Dear Todd,

I'm writing in response to your request for records received February 29, 2024 in which you requested various records related to enrollment prediction services.

Regarding your request for 1) all active contracts and accompanying statements of work the university has entered into for predictive machine learning services that aid in the enrollment and recruitment of students, I will shortly be sending a link to download the (4) records responsive to your request via our secure FTP service. [Please note that files need to be downloaded before the link expires, and that the link will not work when forwarded to another address-more information is available here<https://www.uvm.edu/it/kb/article/file-transfer-service/#viewing-sent-files>.]

You will see that several clauses within the produced documents have been redacted as exempt from disclosure pursuant to section 317(c)(9) of the Vermont Public Records Act, which exempts from disclosure trade secrets, including confidential business information. As provided in section 318(a) of the Public Records Act, you may appeal to the University's President my determination that the information you seek is exempt from production. The President's name is Suresh Garimella, 349 Waterman Building, Burlington, VT 05405; his e-mail address is president@uvm.edu<mailto:president@uvm.edu>.

Regarding your request for 2) documentation of the machine learning models included in the responsive contracts, specifically a) Input data, to the extent they exist, these records are exempt from production under the Vermont Public Records Act, specifically section 317(c)(11), which protects student records. As provided in section 318(a) of the Public Records Act, you may appeal to the University's President my determination that the information you seek is exempt from production. The President's name is Suresh Garimella, 349 Waterman Building, Burlington, VT 05405; his e-mail address is president@uvm.edu<mailto:president@uvm.edu>.

Regarding your request for 2) documentation of the machine learning models included in the responsive contracts, specifically b) Output data, these records are excluded from production under § 1 V.S.A. § 317(c)(9) of the Vermont Public Records Act, which exempts from disclosure trade secrets, including confidential business information. They would further be exempt from production under the Vermont Public Records Act, specifically section 317(c)(11), which protects student records. As provided in section 318(a) of the Public Records Act, you may appeal to the University's President my determination that the information you seek is exempt from production. The President's name is Suresh Garimella, 349 Waterman Building, Burlington, VT 05405; his e-mail address is president@uvm.edu<mailto:president@uvm.edu>.

Regarding your request for 2) documentation of the machine learning models included in the responsive contracts, specifically c) Model accuracy, I have conducted a diligent search, and the record that you have requested does not exist in the form you have specified or in any other form. As required by the Vermont Public Records Act, 1 V.S.A. § 318(a)(4), I certify that the requested records do not exist.

(4) files to be sent separately via secure FTP link:

#
File Name
1
F_EAB_AI Beta Cohort Participation Agreement_Fully Executed.pdf
2
F_ERA_fully executed.2023.07.28.pdf
3
F_RNL_UVM RNL_RFP 32-05-22_Contract Package.Fully Executed.pdf
4
R_ERA_Enrollment Reseach_exectued_Redacted.pdf

Sincerely,

Office of Compliance and Privacy Services
University of Vermont
P: 802.656.3086<mailto:802.656.3086> / E: public.records@uvm.edu<mailto:public.records@uvm.edu>

PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS INFORMATION<https://www.uvm.edu/compliance/public-records>

[University of Vermont logo: A white letter V outlined by a dark green shield and the text University of Vermont]<https://uvm.edu/>
********************CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE********************
This e-mail and any attachments may contain private, confidential, and privileged information for the sole use of the intended recipient. This information is intended for the recipient and use by authorized addressees only. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately. Any dissemination, distribution, forwarding, printing, copying or otherwise duplicating is strictly prohibited and could violate federal and/or state law.

UVM is subject to the Vermont Public Records Act and communications to and from this email address, including attachments, are subject to disclosure unless exempted under the Act or otherwise applicable law.

February 29, 2024

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Vermont Public Records Act, I hereby request the following records:

1) All active contracts and accompanying statements of work the university has entered into for predictive machine learning services that aid in the enrollment and recruitment of students. Specifically, this includes services that feed input data provided by the university about current and historical student enrollment into machine learning models in order to make predictions about the probability of future enrollment by individual students, students from geographic regions (e.g. zip code or high school), and/or students belonging to demographic groups (e.g. Black students or first-generation students). Popular providers of predictive enrollment services include, but are not limited to: EAB, RNL (Ruffalo, Noel, Levitz), Mainstay, Othot, and The College Board.

2) Documentation of the machine learning models included in the responsive contracts. Specifically, this includes documents created by the university or provided to the university by the vendor or a third party that describe:

a) Input data-the data the university provides for analysis by the model
b) Output data-the data the model generates for the university to use (e.g., a numerical score, a probability percentage, a letter grade, or other ranking)
c) Model accuracy-metrics such as AUC, false positive/negative rates, sensitivity, specificity, etc. that demonstrate how the model performs at its intended task

I ask that all fees be waived as I am a journalist and intend to used the requested records to publish articles in the public interest and not for any commercial purpose.

If you choose to impose fees, I request a detailed breakdown of the fees, including the hourly wage of each employee involved and an explanation of the employee hours required to fulfill the request.

If you choose to reject this request or redact portions of responsive documents, I ask that you provide a detailed breakdown of the statutory exemptions and associated case law underlying your decision to withhold each/any portions from public review.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 3 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Todd Feathers

View request history, upload responsive documents, and report problems here:
https://www.muckrock.com/

If prompted for a passcode, please enter:
••••••••

Filed via MuckRock.com
E-mail (Preferred): requests@muckrock.com<mailto:requests@muckrock.com>

PLEASE NOTE OUR NEW ADDRESS
For mailed responses, please address (see note):
MuckRock News
DEPT MR 159558
263 Huntington Ave
Boston, MA 02115

PLEASE NOTE: This request is not filed by a MuckRock staff member, but is being sent through MuckRock by the above in order to better track, share, and manage public records requests. Also note that improperly addressed (i.e., with the requester's name rather than "MuckRock News" and the department number) requests might be returned as undeliverable.

&nbsp;

ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY SERVICES


&nbsp;

&nbsp;

FILE TRANSFER SERVICE

&nbsp;

Public.Records@uvm.edu has created a file share for you.

&nbsp;

Files are being sent to you using
The University of Vermont's file transfer service:

F_EAB_AI Beta Cohort Participation Agreement_Fully Executed.pdf (152.27 KB)
F_ERA_fully executed.2023.07.28.pdf (6.44 MB)
F_RNL_UVM RNL_RFP 32-05-22_Contract Package.Fully Executed.pdf (1.41 MB)
R_ERA_Enrollment Reseach_exectued_Redacted.pdf (2.89 MB)

To retrieve them,
you can click here, or you can go to the main file pickup page at
https://filetransfer.uvm.edu/pickup/ and type your email address
(requests@muckrock.com) and the recovery key bzG3EfG8Bi. This file share will expire June 6 and be removed.


Please report any misuse of this service to abuse@uvm.edu.

Enterprise Technology Services
The University of Vermont

(802) 656-2604
www.uvm.edu/ets

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&copy; The University of Vermont 2024

&nbsp;

Dear Todd,

As I was preparing your files to be transferred, I realized that one still needs to be finalized. I am resolving that now and will send your full set as soon as this is ready. If it looks like it will go into next week to resolve, I will send the rest of the records tomorrow. Apologies for the delay.

Sincerely,

Office of Compliance and Privacy Services
University of Vermont
P: 802.656.3086<mailto:802.656.3086> / E: public.records@uvm.edu<mailto:public.records@uvm.edu>

PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS INFORMATION<https://www.uvm.edu/compliance/public-records>

********************CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE********************
This e-mail and any attachments may contain private, confidential, and privileged information for the sole use of the intended recipient. This information is intended for the recipient and use by authorized addressees only. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender immediately. Any dissemination, distribution, forwarding, printing, copying or otherwise duplicating is strictly prohibited and could violate federal and/or state law.

UVM is subject to the Vermont Public Records Act and communications to and from this email address, including attachments, are subject to disclosure unless exempted under the Act or otherwise applicable law.

&nbsp;

ENTERPRISE TECHNOLOGY SERVICES


&nbsp;

&nbsp;

FILE TRANSFER SERVICE

&nbsp;

Public.Records@uvm.edu has created a file share for you.

&nbsp;

Files are being sent to you using
The University of Vermont's file transfer service:

FF_RNL_UVM RNL_RFP 32-05-22_Contract Package.Fully Executed.pdf (1.41 MB)
RR_ERA_Enrolment Reseach_executed_Redacted.pdf (2.89 MB)
RR_ERA_fully executed.2023.07.28_Redacted.pdf (2.93 MB)
FF_EAB_AI Beta Cohort Participation Agreement_Fully Executed.pdf (152.27 KB)

To retrieve them,
you can click here, or you can go to the main file pickup page at
https://filetransfer.uvm.edu/pickup/ and type your email address
(requests@muckrock.com) and the recovery key YRtaQd3E8n. This file share will expire June 6 and be removed.


Please report any misuse of this service to abuse@uvm.edu.

Enterprise Technology Services
The University of Vermont

(802) 656-2604
www.uvm.edu/ets

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&copy; The University of Vermont 2024

&nbsp;