Public universities

With the explicit intention of keeping candidate applications out of the public eye, the University of Arkansas is using a private search firm in its hunt for a new chancellor.

The University of Arkansas Foundation Inc. will pay the search firm to look for a new head of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.  The foundation is funded with private money so the process won't be subject to the state's open records law. 

Florida State University is apparently giving the media the cold shoulder over a seemingly public record detailing NCAA claims of wrongdoing at the school.

Pennsylvania State University waited three months to publicly report a sexual attack on a female student, originally terming the incident an “assault on a female, ” the school's Daily Collegian reported.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette intends to sue West Virginia University for violating its state open records law in three document requests the paper submitted to the school.

In a complaint the Post-Gazette sent to the university and the state attorney general, the newspaper said the school failed to respond in a timely manner to the requests, withheld some public documents entirely and redacted other information by intentionally misapplying exemptions under the law.

Three public universities in Virginia will be able to keep private names of donors who ask for anonymity when making gifts, pending the governor’s signature in the coming weeks.

The student government at Utah State University will open meetings that have been closed to the public for more than a year, after the president of the student body senate said he realized what they were doing was illegal.

Jacksonville State University has refused The Anniston’s Star’s request  to release records related to its athletic department's drug-testing program.

This refusal comes less than a year after the state attorney general’s office said coaches’ contracts are public records and compelled the university to hand them over to the Star.

Two bills that would allow the University of Virginia to keep private the names of donors who ask for anonymity when making gifts have passed their respective chambers.

A bill that would allow the University of Virginia to keep private the names of donors who ask for anonymity when making gifts has moved forward in the General Assembly.

If enacted, the bill would grant the school an exemption under the Freedom of Information Act to withhold an indeterminate amount of personal information about their nearly 450,000 donors.

The Virginia House of Delegates got one step closer to passing legislation that would allow the University of Virginia to keep private the names of donors who ask for anonymity when making gifts.

If enacted, the bill would grant the school an exemption under the Freedom of Information Act to withhold an indeterminate amount of information about their donors.

On Thursday, the Freedom of Information Act subcommittee of the House Committee on General Laws approved the bill on a 3-2 vote.