In light of the disheartening audit that revealed OU employees haven’t complied with state public records laws, columnist Erin Davoran discusses other ways the university limits the news.
Earlier this week, The Post published the findings of a public records audit organized by Post employees that revealed that nearly half of employees at Ohio public universities, including Ohio University, did not follow state law when such records were requested.
According to the report, “At OU, three requests were directed to legal affairs, one was obstructed and one was denied.”
In a Post editorial Monday, the executive editors wrote, “Accessing public records is something we struggle with on what seems like a weekly basis.”
I have struggled with accessing public records from OU, as well as facing other obstacles while pursuing news stories.
OU does its best to narrow channels of communication between journalists and school employees, student workers and student athletes who aren’t even workers.
Student athletes, who are not employees of the school — though there is a strong argument for student-athlete compensation and recognition that being a college athlete is a job — cannot be contacted directly. Instead, interviews have to be set up through athletics media relations directors.
Last year when I was working on a story about university markets, the only way I could interview a student manager was with her boss from Culinary Services, who organized the interview, sitting right next to her.
Also last year, Will Drabold, one of the Post employees who worked on the audit, was told taking photos in Nelson Market could be considered trespassing. Culinary Services’ has a policy barring photography in its venues without approval.
Contacting OU employees in a multitude of departments is extremely difficult too, as most media requests have to go through Katie Quaranta, an OU spokeswoman.
As noted in Monday’s editorial, this week is Sunshine Week, a “national initiative to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information.”
OU isn’t the government, but it does need to be more open.
The lack of transparency and accessibility is not just a problem for journalists, but all who are involved in and affected by the policies and actions of the university.
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If journalists cannot report on the true happenings at OU without having records withheld or sources unreachable, readers who have the right to know the truth will instead receive limited, polished, PR-approved accounts of the news.
Maybe that’s what OU wants, but it’s not what its students, faculty and staff deserve. And it’s definitely not what journalists will settle for. We will keep asking for records and contacting sources, no matter what obstacles the university makes us face.
Erin Davoran is a senior studying journalism. Did you read The Post's audit story? Tweet her @erindavoran or email her at ed414911@ohio.edu.
