A bill introduced to the state Senate June 15 would require more transparency on the part of the Board of Trustees committees at the University of Delaware and Delaware State University.
Delaware and Pennsylvania are the only states with open records exemptions for “publicly funded” or “state-related” universities — institutions that receive taxpayer dollars but receive a majority of their funding from private donors. The laws permit UD, Delaware State and four other institutions — University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania State University, Temple University and Lincoln University — to limit what information the public has access to.
A bill signed into law by Gov. Jack Markell on Tuesday largely preserved public records and open meetings exemptions for the University of Delaware and Delaware State University, but will require the universities to produce records related to proposals or contracts that spend public funds. The law will go into effect immediately.
The Delaware House of Representatives is considering a bill that could end exemptions for the University of Delaware and Delaware State University under the state’s public records and open meeting laws.
A U.S. District Court judge awarded nominal damagesto a University of Delaware student, acknowledging the college violated thestudent's First Amendment rights by punishing him for offensive butnon-threatening speech on a personal Web page.
DELAWARE -- A student sued the University of Delaware Wednesday, claiming the school violated his First Amendment rights by suspending him for material on his Web site that some students, the school claims, considered offensive.