A group of reporters from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s weekly student newspaper, The Post, formally requested Wednesday that Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen decide whether student governments should be obligated to comply with state open record and public meeting laws.
According to The Post’s Editor in Chief Jonathon Anderson, the request came after two incidents on campus when student media were denied information from their student government.
The first denial was of an open records request to UW-Milwaukee’s student government, the Student Association, inquiring about financial information and names of those attending a trip to New York City in February 2008. After months of waiting, The Post had to eventually go through the university to obtain the information.
The second incident occurred in April 2008 when Student Association’s elections commissioner tried to throw out UW-Milwaukee’s television program PantherVision from an open meeting regarding student elections. After some discussion, they were ultimately able to stay.
According to Anderson, after these incidents, The Post began to investigate whether student governments across the state were subject to state open records and public meetings laws.
“The goal is to ensure that government in Wisconsin is transparent and government officials are accountable to people that elected them. Student government, we contend, is a part of government,” Anderson said.
UW Associated Students of Madison Chair Brittany Wiegand agreed, saying ASM receives open records requests regarding the Student Council and the Student Services Finance Committee often, and they try to complete all requests within a few days.
“We try to be as transparent as possible. … In order to make all governments transparent, student governments should comply with open records requests,” Wiegand said.
At the Wednesday meeting, student reporters submitted a 147-page report to the Department of Justice in hopes of receiving some clarity on the issue.
According to DOJ spokesperson Kevin St. John, it is the attorney general’s job to provide advice to members of the public on open records law.
“We take phone calls from members of the public … or from government entities themselves seeking to do the right thing, but would like some advice as to the scope of the law,” St. John said. “It is something Van Hollen has championed since his time as attorney general.”
He added the request may require a formal opinion from Van Hollen, which takes about three months, or it may be decided by an assistant district attorney, which takes about 30 days.
According to UW journalism professor Robert Drechsel, the question will be whether student governments are the kinds of governmental bodies subject to state open records laws.
“It’s possible they aren’t,” Drechsel said. “My general understanding is that student government exists under the idea of shared governance and [the laws] are mentioned statutorily. The question is whether there is in fact any official state government action … that created [student government], which I doubt.”
