Troubling pattern at UI

The University of Iowa is a public institution, but it doesn't seem to value the public's right to know.

The UI recently decided to appeal a judge's order that it release more than 1,000 pages of documents related to a reported sexual assault on campus in October 2007. Two former Hawkeye football players have been charged in the case and are awaiting trial.

The Iowa City Press-Citizen filed a lawsuit in January 2008, hoping to persuade the university to release stacks of documents related to its handling of the case. Rather than come clean, the UI is asking that the records be sealed while its appeal meanders through the court system. University officials, citing attorney-client privilege and privacy laws, are trying to milk the clock.

Iowans, taxpayers who support state universities, deserve to know exactly how officials handled such a serious incident on campus. Students and their parents deserve to know. This is not an internal matter that should be locked away in a web of legal maneuvers.

No one is asking the university to release information that can be lawfully kept confidential. Personal privacy should be respected. But the university is trying use that small legal patch of confidentiality to cover scores of records that should and must be released to the public.

Sadly, this is not the first time the UI has thrown up roadblocks in a high-profile case.

The last search for a president spawned two lawsuits. The first, brought by the Press-Citizen, accused the Board of Regents of violating open meetings laws by holding a weeklong “rolling meeting” to interview candidates. A second search, this time led by a campus committee, drew another open meetings lawsuit by a faculty member. The newspaper won, and the second suit was settled.

Officials also fought release of communications from a former University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics director on key university issues, arguing that he wasn't an employee despite his use of university staff and resources. In August, the UI declined to release details of its $19 million legal settlement with drugmaker Amgen.

“It seems to be a pattern,” said Kathleen Richardson, director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council.

The Iowa Attorney General's Office provides legal advice to the university. That's troubling, because that office is supposed to be the top enforcer of open records and open meetings laws.

It's also among many good reasons for Iowa to create a separate entity to enforce sunshine laws - a panel with teeth and the ability to steer disputes away from clogged courts. Lawmakers, under pressure from local governments who like things the way they are, shelved the idea in two consecutive sessions.

A state budget in dire deficit likely means another year on the shelf. But this need is too important to ignore.