SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Investigators are reviewing the records of students at colleges and universities from California to Rhode Island as they probe the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said education officials.
Several of California's state college campuses have received requests to turn over certain records, officials said. Most were for specific students.
However, the FBI asked for a list of all foreign students attending Fresno State University, said Colleen Bentley-Adler, spokeswoman for the 23-campus California State University system.
"We're cooperating with the FBI and turning over the records," she said Thursday.
At least four Utah colleges have turned over records of some aviation and foreign students. College administrators there said the FBI requested data on specific students, including names, addresses, birth dates and confirmation of attendance.
"I've spoken with three or four agents in the past week and a half," said Loren Evans, registrar at Salt Lake Community College. Evans said agents were interested in the immigration status of about 20 students.
University of Rhode Island spokeswoman Linda Acciardo said the school had received a general subpoena from a federal grand jury in Boston that did not name specific students.
Schools are generally barred from releasing students' records without their written permission. But many in this instance are turning over the information without protest, based on a U.S. Department of Education interpretation of the 1974 privacy law.
Department spokeswoman Lindsey Kozberg said the agency is advising schools they can release the information under a "health or safety emergency" exemption. The exception is believed to have been used only once before, after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal bombing.
Kozberg said the department has received calls from about 30 schools seeking guidance on how to handle subpoenas for student records.
She and education officials declined to provide details or names of students whose records are being studied. A spokeswoman at FBI headquarters in Washington refused to comment.
At least four California students are being held as material witnesses because they are believed to have ties to three hijackers who lived in San Diego prior to helping fly a commercial jetliner into the Pentagon.
