The former head of the National Scholastic Press Association and Associated Collegiate Press will be advising the SPLC on volunteer mobilization and partnership-building, and aiding in the transition to a soon-to-be-hired new Executive Director.
The SPLC and five open-government advocacy groups weighed in behind student journalists with Orlando-based Knight News in the University of Central Florida's appeal of a court order declaring student government expense reports to be public records.
The editors and staff of Knight News at the University of Central Florida were presented Oct. 22 with the annual College Press Freedom Award, in recognition of their extraordinary determination in pursuing disclosure of public records in the face of brutal attacks by their university.
In a brief filed Wednesday, the Student Press Law Center and leading news-media organizations ask the Michigan Supreme Court to take on a case challenging the legality of secret “pre-meeting meetings” where trustees of Michigan universities discuss public business behind closed doors.
The SPLC brief, filed with Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach, argues that the student privacy statute, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), cannot constitutionally be applied to obstruct compliance with state open-records laws.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 9, 2017
Contact: Frank D.