As students, you pay thousands of dollars a year in tuition and taxes that benefit the University. But do you know how that money is spent?
As a public institution, the University is bound by Oregon Public Records Law to release many records that can show us how the University uses our money. Further, we believe open government, including this University, is vital to our ability in making informed decisions in this democracy.
We are fortunate that Oregon laws require government institutions to release most records to anyone who asks for them. Unless University lawyers can prove that a record is specifically exempt from the law, they must release all of the record or the portions that are not exempt. University President Dave Frohnmayer helped craft this law in the 1970s.
Public records theoretically available at the University include faculty salaries, University contracts, bills, budget documents, most meeting minutes and even correspondence via e-mail between some University employees. These records help us keep leaders accountable.
Yet a recent Emerald investigation of how the University releases public records and our experiences over the last several years, reveal that administrators sometimes do not understand the law or are reluctant to release records.
Most records requests are filed through the office of General Counsel to the University Melinda Grier. As she recently told the Emerald in an e-mail, workload in her office has been “extremely heavy,” and she regrets she has not been able to provide information “as quickly as we would like.” This statement understates the problem.
For example, in a written response to the Emerald’s request for the travel records of three administrators, Grier stated it would cost $275 to “collect the information and provide the documents.” She stated that it would cost $125 for labor to gather employment contracts for five top University administrators.
These costs are puzzling and disturbing. As a newspaper, we have a small budget to request key records. But how can the average student who is curious about this information afford these costs? Moreover, why are these costs so high?
In another case, the Emerald filed a request to Grier on Oct. 16, 2005, asking for all documents the University sent to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights in its investigation into an Office of Multicultural Academic Support’s policy that reserved slots in some math and English classes for minority students. We hoped to shed some light on the University’s decision on a controversial issue. We sent two more requests before we received word back on Nov. 7, after we had already received the documents from the Department of Education.
We do not dispute the fact that Grier’s office is busy. Yet what really matters is that the University is not releasing records in a reasonable time or at a reasonable cost. This defeats students’ ability to obtain information that is their legal right to know. This situation is not acceptable, and it is President Frohnmayer’s ultimate responsibility to ensure that these records are released at a price students can afford.
We know budgets are tight. We suggest that the University hire one or more legal assistants to help Grier and her co-workers with locating, redacting and duplicating records. This would reduce costs because Grier’s pay-rate is far higher than that of a legal clerk. We can look to other universities as examples of this solution.
It’s time to stop accepting excuses and demand faster and cheaper access to records.