Comments to Maryland House Committee on Health & Government Operations re: House Bill 62

2012-02-22-comments-to-maryland-house-committee-on-health--go.pdf

HB 62 proposes an amendment to the current exemption for “research projects” in Maryland's public information act that would allow public universities to withhold from disclosure wide categories of records "produced or collected by" faculty members. The stated purpose of the bill is to prevent open records requests designed to “intimidate or embarrass the professors for political beliefs related to their academic studies or to attack their research.” The Reporters Committee argued that the bill is overly broad and vague, virtually eliminating all access to the records of public university faculty members. Barring access to such records would invite misconduct on the part of faculty members, the Reporters Committee argued, as journalists and the public would be unable to provide oversight to faculty members' use of publicly funded time and resources.