KENTUCKY — University of Kentucky officials have releasedemployee records previously denied to the student newspaper afterbeing threatened with a lawsuit in the Fayette County CircuitCourt.
While employees’ race, gender and ages will be released, theirnames will not be attached to the personal information. The agreementstipulates that if the Kentucky Kernel discovers the identityof employees, it cannot publish their race, gender or age withoutconsent of the individuals or other sources, said Kim Greene,attorney for the Kernel.
Originally the university permitted the disclosure of employees’salaries and names, but denied race, gender and age information.The Kentucky attorney general’s office upheld the university’sdecision.
The possibility of a lawsuit was spurred by an open-recordsrequest submitted to the university by Kernel summer editorin chief Scott Sloan, who was attempting to gain access to a databasedetailing the name, gender, race, date of birth, salary and jobtitle of all university employees. Sloan still intends on usingthe information to examine the pay equity among employees accordingto their age, race and gender.