A gray area exists as to whether open records law should be applied to private university law enforcement. A private university may have its own police department with the same arrest powers as any public police department, but in many states it’s at the discretion of the department to release crime records when requests are made. A private university police department may respond to an open records request with the response that as a private institution, it is not governed by state open-records law.
Author: Kyle McDonald
Exclusive? Media, athletic groups await ruling on high school broadcast rights
While press regulations exist at all levels of sports, from professional to college to high school, court battles over media ownership rights and press freedoms continue to arise, particularly at the high school level.
Trashed
Mass theft of newspapers is a consistently reoccurring problem college journalists around the country face. The motive behind each instance is different, but every year thousands of student newspapers are removed from the stands, keeping them out of public hands.
Va. Tech fined $55K for Clery Act violations
TheU.S. Department of Education fined Virginia Tech $55,000 after finding theuniversity in violation of the Clery Act in its response to the 2007 shootingrampage on campus.
SUNSHINE WEEK: Courts weigh transparency, student privacy
In the past year, courts across the country have tried tointerpret the meaning of the federal student privacy law, known as FERPA.Several recent rulings suggest the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Actdoes not protect the vast array of information about students that someuniversities have claimed.
UPDATED: Sex issue at private Kan. university goes missing
Jurski said in an email that OU administration and Campus staff met last week and are putting together a task force to form a new student media board policy.
Officials investigate apparent newspaper theft at Ky. college
Thereason for empty newspaper racks at Elizabethtown Community and TechnicalCollege remains unknown as campus security and student newspaper staffers continuesearching for a cause.
Towson Univ. student paper disappears from racks
Thousandsof copies of the Towerlight, TowsonUniversity’s student newspaper, disappeared from the racks in what the staffbelieves to be a case of newspaper theft.
Reporters denied access to Okla. regents meetings
TheUniversity of Oklahoma Board of Regents has barred reporters from itssubcommittee meetings, raising questions about its compliance withopen-meetings laws.
After open records dispute, Iowa school boards group says it will release e-mails
Afterdebate over what types of e-mail records can be disclosed under Iowa’sopen-records law, the Iowa Association of School Boards is preparing todisclose documents requested by the DesMoines Register.