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Student Newspaper Considers Legal Action Against U. Nebraska, Lincoln

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Jake Ortman

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Nov 28, 2000, 3:00:00 AM11/28/00

[Sorry about the cross post, but I wanted to hear a wide variety of opinions
on this, as this is a big issue with access to a public university's
records.]

The Daily Nebraskan (the article doesn't list their URL, but it's
www.dailyneb.com), the student newspaper at the University of Nebraska,
Lincoln, is considering legal action against the school to gain access to
crime statistics that the university keeps on its students. The university
has denied the newspaper access to the records in the past, basically
finding a loophole to giving away what should be public information: "After
careful review of the Nebraska open-records statute, as well as the Federal
Family Rights and Privacy Act, I can find no evidence to support granting
your request to view any university disciplinary records," Judicial Affairs
Director Rosemary Blum wrote on Oct. 3. So basically they're justifying the
university policy of keeping these records confidential with the university
policy itself. Kind of a circular argument, isn't it? Regardless, the
Student Press Law Center as well as Nebraska's SPJ branch aren't very happy
about this.

For the full story head to this URL (the url may have wrapped, so make sure
you get all of it):

http://nebraska.statepaper.com/texis/scripts/vnews/newspaper/+/ART/2000/11/2
8/3a234a659

My belief is that the DN is fighting a good fight for records that should be
public, and, ultimately, the university should be required to give them up.
What's your take? BTW: If you don't want to post to the list about this,
there is a feedback/discussion function at the end of the article above.

--Jake

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