What's public by default
FERPA lets the university release a short list of directory items — not grades, not schedule, not contact details beyond what you choose — without your consent. A directory hold makes even that list private.
Before you place a hold
It's thorough: with a full hold in place, the Registrar can't confirm to an outside party that you attend or graduated, which can stall a loan, a background check, or an insurance discount. Many students instead suppress just the phone and address and leave enrollment verifiable.
In and around Porter Falls
The Porter Student Help Desk in Founders Union 118 is the single place to start when it is not obvious which office owns a question.
The practical details
Directory info: Name, enrollment status, dates of attendance, major, degrees — releasable unless you opt out. Opt out: A directory-hold request through the Registrar, effective until you lift it. Trade-off: A hold also blocks routine confirmations — enrollment verifications to a lender, a degree check by an employer — until you clear it. Anything time-sensitive — an accommodation, a booking, a deadline — is worth confirming directly before you rely on it, because the specifics here can change from term to term.
If you have a question
The office behind this is Porter Student Help Desk (Founders Union, Room 118). Call (715) 555–0120 or email help@uwporterfalls.edu during the fall and spring terms, or sign in to MyPorter to send a message or book a time. If it turns out another office owns the question, they will route it rather than send you back to the start.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. Every office, person, building, phone number and statistic on this page is invented; nothing here describes a real institution or a service you can actually contact.