Tuesday, September 02, 2008

FOI FYI : That time of year again: University student government meeting violations

That time of year again: University student government meeting violations

Every fall when a new crop of student leaders start meeting at universities we run into violations of open meeting laws, usually out of ignorance not arrogance, and it's up to student journalists to help educate student leaders to the law. The Daily Campus at the University of Connecticut reported meeting violations by the student government board, and the student leaders acknowledged they were unaware of the law and will follow the law in the future. Sometimes that's all it takes.

A tip for writing about these issues: Posted online comments in response to The Daily Campus' story attacked the newspaper for the story, saying it is unethical for the newspaper to say the student body violated the state open meeting law. Who are a bunch of student journalists to say they broke the law? That's a good point. When writing about these violations, a quick call to FOI experts in the state or nationally will help by verifying that they did indeed break the law and provide authoritative sourcing. Get FOI experts in your phone directory. Some possibilities (see more thoughts in my FOI Toolbox column in the June/July Quill magazine, p. 63):

 
 

Published Friday, August 29, 2008 11:55 AM by DavidCuillier

 
 

Inserted from <http://spj.org/blog/blogs/foifyi/archive/2008/08/29/21403.aspx>