Open records

Students who want to take a look at what a course offers can request a syllabus from the specific department or professor.
The Parthenon conducted an open records audit on campus.   The goal of the audit is to request various open records on campus and report the process to receive the information.
The preamble to the Freedom of Information Act “asserts the right of members of the public to obtain access to official information to the greatest extent possible consistent with the public interest and the right to privacy of individuals.”  According to the West Virginia Code, chapter 29B, college course syllabi are not an exemption in the Freedom of Information Act.
A request for a Communications 103 syllabus was successful.
“All of the syllabi are online and can be printed by anyone,” said Lu Ann South, administrative secretary senior for the department.
South printed a copy of Sharon Webb’s Communications 103 syllabus with no objections.
“Most schools make it difficult to get information that is clearly public,” said Mark Goodman, chair in scholastic journalism at Kent State University.
He said it differs legally from state to state which schools have to release certain information.
“I’ve found that most people asked for records ask why, like if your answer is not worthy they won’t give it to you, which is illegal,” Goodman said.  “I would say 50 percent of those who ask for information get a delayed answer or just get denied.”
He said financial information is usually the easiest to obtain and campus crime information is the hardest. He has experienced being turned down for records that are obviously public and has received attitudes of resistance, delay and denial.
“Administration doesn’t like to give records freely.  They like to think they can control the flow of information that is circulating about them,” Goodman said.
Before Goodman joined Kent State University, he served 22 years as executive director for the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va.  According to the Web site, “The Student Press Law Center is an advocate for student free-press rights and provides information, advice and legal assistance at no charge to students and the educators who work with them.”
Approximately 2,500 student journalists and teachers contact the center each year for help or information.

Whitney Hunter can be contacted at howell38@marshall.edu.

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