Balance UI’s guarded approach

By The Gazette Editorial Board

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University of Iowa President Sally Mason has shown considerable strong leadership over the past five years. She has led the institution through tough times, including budget adjustments to major state funding cuts and recovery from the 2008 flood.

But the institution's routine refusal to release records and information about recent controversies of significant public interest cast a shadow over Mason's tenure.

The continually guarded approach has damaged the trust Iowans have in the UI and prompted some to call for Mason's resignation.

Instead, we think Mason should resolve to move forward with a new commitment to change the public university's culture to one which conducts its public business more openly.

The UI has been the subject of several high-profile controversies since Mason took the helm five years ago.

Most recently, the investigation and resignation of Associate Director of Athletic Student Services Peter Gray and the reassignment of his former supervisor, longtime department official Fred Mims, have raised important questions into how timely and how well the UI responds to allegations of misconduct.

Last month, the stifling of a UI College of Education survey prompted seven faculty members of the college's Faculty Advisory Committee to resign their posts in protest.

“We consider these actions a violation of the principles of shared governance and the integrity of a (College of Education) governance body,” they wrote in an email.

The UI Provost, Barry Butler, said those survey comments should be considered confidential personnel records.

Mason defended the school's tight-lipped approach in a recent news conference, saying that more openness and transparency could leave the UI vulnerable to lawsuits brought by students, faculty or staff who feel their privacy had been violated.

“I am absolutely committed to not putting the institution at risk for litigation if I can help it,” she said. “I do not think that's productive, nor do I want to spend money on litigation.”

Mason has said that she will continue to err on the side of privacy unless and until state lawmakers clarify exactly which records involving personnel and students are public and which are private. Clarifying some of the sunshine laws might help, but we think UI's interpretation of exemptions to those laws is overly conservative.

We hope Mason will call for a more balanced approach between considerations of privacy and Iowans' right to know how their public business is being conducted.

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