The Board of Regents may have purposely attempted to keep a controversial meeting quiet, a report released Friday by the Attorney General indicated.

The board, which oversees the network of University of Wisconsin schools, has recently fallen under intense scrutiny after it approved $98,000 in salary increases for top executives in a private conference call in September.

An investigation by the attorney general’s office revealed interpersonal tension between some board members as well as an e-mail requesting that the meeting notice be kept quiet. In the letter, George Brooks, the University of Wisconsin System associate vice president for human resources, urged a regent secretary that publicity of the controversial meeting regarding executive salary hikes receive “absolute minimum distribution.”

Public boards are required by law to inform the media of closed meetings and provide insight into the discussion, and the regents publicized the Sept. 2 meeting as a “statutory required personal matter,” rather than transparently labeling the discussion on salary increases.

In the report, regent member Nino Amato speculated that board President Katharine Lyall wanted Amato removed from the board, an allegation that Lyall denied.

Student regent and UW law-school student Beth Richlen said she thinks Amato simply wanted to put a magnifying glass on the system and said she is unaware of the interpersonal grievances that brew away from the office. She said the ordeals uncovered in the media appear “soap-opera-esque,” far removed from what she has experienced in meetings.

“You definitely do not see how it works; sometimes I feel like it goes right over my head,” she said. “They are very professional when they are at the table.”

Richlen said the salary increases appear more sinister than she feels they are, and the report reveals the character of a group with many new members who do not fully understand how the board is required to operate.

“The board is not trying to pull anything over on anyone else,” Richlen said.

Richlen said the atmosphere in regents meetings has shifted in the sense that there is a heightened preparedness to handle any controversial issue that may arise.

Richlen said most of the regents did not know in advance that they would discuss a legal settlement in their last meeting, in which the board admitted it had broken open-records laws and then voided the salary increases, promising to better notify the public of its closed meetings.

The salary-increase measure was not thrown out entirely, however, and the measure was appointed for review to a committee.