After more than a year, an ongoing legal battle and the passage of a new law, a student newspaper at the University of Texas at Austin finally got what it asked for in an open-records request — or at least some of it.
News
Student editor sues board over closed meetings
The editor of a student newspaper at Mesa State College sued the college’s Board of Trustees in March, claiming the board failed to hold open meetings — as required by state law — during its controversial search for a new college president.
W.Va. university retaliated against officers, jury rules
A Monongalia County jury in February ordered West Virginia University to pay $868,000 in damages for retaliating against three campus police officers who tried to report the school for allegedly falsifying campus crime statistics.
How to gain access to private university police records
If you are a student journalist at a private college or university and want access to campus police records beyond basic log information, you must first determine if the campus police have law enforcement authority. If so, the campus police might be subject to your state’s open-records law. Each state’s open-records law is different, so you must research the relationship between your campus police and state law.
Same Game, Different Rules
Felicia is a student journalist at a public university. She is writing an article about crime on her campus and is interested in researching an armed robbery that occurred at her school last fall.
D.C. university asks police to zip their lips
The confidentiality agreement asks officers to refuse to discuss or disseminate “all records related to University business or University personnel, whether received, disseminated, generated, or maintained by the Department …” Among the records officers are not to release are incident reports and personnel rosters, the agreement states.
New Tenn. law requires campus crime disclosure
The law, co-sponsored by state Sen. Tim Burchett, R-Knoxville, and state Rep. Harry Brooks, R-Knoxville, amends the Tennessee Open Records Act to force public colleges and universities to disclose three categories of student disciplinary records.
Band's security guards seize photojournalist's memory card
Ching Fung had worked for the student newspaper at St. Cloud State University for less than a year when the popular, Grammy Award-winning rock band Evanescence came to town.
Mass. police refuse to grant student reporters press passes
The Massachusetts State Police have denied an appeal for media credentials made by a reporter for a student newspaper at Boston College because the paper does not publish daily.
Student photographers settle protest arrest suit
Three student photographers arrested during a September 2002 anti-war and anti-globalization protest settled a lawsuit in December against the District of Columbia.