The student newspaper at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown will keep its student government-allocated funding despite student-led efforts to eliminate the paper’s subsidies.
One bill would require state-related universities — institutions that receive taxpayer dollars but get a majority of their funding from private donors — to create online databases disclosing budget, salary and contract information. The other bill would require campus police departments at all universities to comply with the same open records requirements as municipal police departments.
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.
According to a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, a written agreement is necessary for a second party, in this case the university, to claim intellectual property rights.
The Pennsylvania Senate is considering a bill that would require four public universities to disclose more under the state’s public records law.
The University of Pittsburgh’s student government tightened its media access guidelines this week, following a series of stories from the student newspaper about potential secret influences on its membership.
Legislation that would bring four colleges in Pennsylvania under the same open records laws as other government agencies has stalled as the state legislature’s session nears its close.
Student journalists for the University ofPittsburgh's Pitt News were arrested September 25 while reportingon protests of the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh.
In a ruling five years in the making, a federal appeals court ruled in July that a state law banning paid alcohol advertisements in student media was a violation of the First Amendment.The landmark ruling paves the way for other student media outside of Pennsylvania to fight similar laws or restrictions.
A federal appeals court in January heard arguments in a case involving the University of Pittsburgh student newspaper’s challenge of Act 199, a state law that bans alcohol advertisements in student publications.