universities – National Freedom of Information Coalition

FERPA, Virginia’s FOIA at odds when it comes to sex crimes, violence on campus

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Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act prevents universities from disclosing information about students found responsible for sex crimes and violence even though the federal law meant to protect student privacy explicitly tells schools to make that information public.

The federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, says the name of a student found responsible for a crime of violence or nonforcible sex offense is a public record along with the violation and the sanction.

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Freedom of the press in the UK? Not for student newspapers

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As the editor of Plymouth Universityís student union paper, the Knowledge, Katie French felt she had a duty to hold her university to account. But four weeks before the deadline for her final-year dissertation she was threatened with expulsion when she printed a story that made Plymouth look bad.

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Effort to make state-related universities in PA more transparent clears key hurdle

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The open records law has been viewed by most as a step toward transparency and accountability. But it has its problems. That’s why state Sen. Lloyd Smucker and other lawmakers in the Senate State Government Committee are proposing some changes.

The first area to be updated deals with how the law applied to the four state-related universities — Penn State, Temple, Pittsburgh and Lincoln. The committee unanimously agreed Wednesday that those schools will be required to create searchable and downloadable databases on their freely accessible public websites.

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Delaware bill eyes universities’ FOIA exemption

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A bill making the University of Delaware and Delaware State University subject to more public scrutiny has been released from a House committee, but with an amendment that guts the intent of the bill and may even weaken existing open-government provisions.

The bill discussed Thursday revises Delaware’s Freedom of Information Act to remove an exemption for the two schools, which receive millions of dollars in taxpayer money each year but are mostly exempt from open records and open meetings laws.

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Federal Government Releases Names of Schools Under Sex Assault Investigations

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The federal government on Thursday took the unprecedented step of releasing the names of 55 colleges and universities under investigation for their handling of sexual violence or harassment complaints. On the list are some of the most prestigious schools in the nation, such as Harvard, Amherst and Princeton.

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