The voices of students who broadcast from their high school and college radio stations are in danger of being silenced due to a seldom-invoked Federal Communications Commission rule that says stations may have to share their airtime with others if they are on the air less than 12 hours a day.
Off-campus non-profit organizations are using this time-share agreement rule to file for demands to share broadcast time or take over non-commercial school stations.
Allegations of sexual assault and drug and alcohol abuse during football recruitment plagued the University of Colorado last year, leading lawmakers and state officials to eye the University of Colorado Foundation, which held key documents that would indicate how some funding for recruitment was spent.
CALIFORNIA ? Harvard University student Nick Ciarelli created ThinkSecret.com in 1998 as a way to showcase his enthusiasm for Apple products. Seven years later, he is fighting to keep the site online.
In an open-records battle spanning more than four years between the Cornell University School of Agriculture and a radio talk-show host, the highest state court ruled partly in favor of each side in February.
KENTUCKY ? The University of Louisville foundations? records were opened by the state courts for good in December 2004, joining a series of other public universities who were recently dealt similar rulings.
The Louisville Courier-Journal sued the University of Louisville Foundation, the school?s fundraising arm, in May 2003 seeking the names of its 45,000 donors.
With frequent tuition hikes and steep taxes comes a desire from thoseconcerned with the use of tax dollars to know how money is allocated at publicuniversities across the country.
IOWA ? After a four-year battle against the Iowa State University Foundation, retired Des Moines businessman Arlen Nichols, 75, came one step closer to obtaining foundation documents that could prove his suspicion that university funds were mishandled.
The Iowa Supreme Court ruled in February that the ISU Foundation?the fundraising arm of the university that denied Nichols an array of records?was performing a government function as a result of its contract with Iowa State University.
As a growing number of high school students find themselves facing legal battles regarding censorship, legislators are trying to establish or change existing laws regarding student expression and student press rights.
GEORGIA ? A bill that allows public universities to withhold documents and records from the public to protect donor confidentiality was passed in the Georgia House of Representatives and the Senate in April, bucking a nationwide trend of openness.
Public colleges and universities, Republican legislators in favor of the bill argued, are at a disadvantage because foundations at private universities are not required to release information about their donors.
University foundations are non-profit entities that receive donations from private citizens and corporations to benefit the public, taxpayer-funded schools with which they are associated.