MINNESOTA — The state’s highest court has ruled that the University of Minnesota Board of Regents must comply with open-meetings and open-records laws when searching for a university president.
In a 4-2 decision, the Minnesota Supreme Court on July 15 ordered the public university’s board of regents to reveal information about candidates interviewed during its search for a university president in 2002. The Supreme Court upheld rulings in two lower courts.
The decision is a victory for The Minnesota Daily, a student newspaper, and four commercial media organizations that demanded the board conduct on open search after the regents announced they were “suspending” adherence to the state’s Open Meetings Law and Data Practices Act during the search when several candidates refused to be interviewed if their identifies would not remain secret. Three days later, the board named then-interim president Robert Bruininks as the only finalist and awarded him the position.
The university’s lawyers contended that because the state constitution grants the board autonomy to govern the university, the board was not required to comply with certain laws enacted by the Legislature, including provisions of the open-meetings and open-records laws.
Justice Russell A. Anderson, writing for the court’s majority, was not persuaded by that argument.
“We are concerned that if adopted, the Regents’ arguments in favor of autonomy may know no discernable bounds,” Anderson wrote.
The board also argued that it does not have to comply with the open-records law because it does not specifically reference university presidential search data and because it names only the university as a public body, not the board of regents. It also contended that the open-meetings law is not applicable because the legislature did not expressly name the board as an entity subject to its requirements.
The court’s majority found those arguments to be unpersuasive.
In a friend-of-the-court brief filed with the Supreme Court, the Student Press Law Center and the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press argued that university presidential searches should be conducted as openly as possible.
“Open government laws allow oversight that ensures public confidence in public institutions and prevents waste and corruption. Considering all that the nation’s public universities accomplish, they do not seem to be suffering from this oversight, nor is the quality of university presidents suffering,” the brief stated.
View the court’s ruling in Star Tribune Co., et al. v. Univ. of Minnesota Bd. of Regents, A03-124 (Minn. Sup. Ct., July 15, 2004).
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