Closed ASUSU meetings violated state law
After being closed to the public and press for more than a year, the Academic Opportunity Fund meetings will now be open to the public, said ASUSU Academic Senate President Kevin Abernethy.
The closed AOF meetings were a violation of the Utah Open and Public Meetings Act, and a violation of the ASUSU Constitution. Jeffrey Hunt, an attorney specializing in First Amendment issues in Utah, said the Utah Open and Public Meetings Act “is designed to protect the public’s right to know about the public’s business.”
Hunt said because ASUSU is supported in part by public funds, they are a public body, and any meeting held should be open to the public.
“The act ensures the rights of the public, not just journalists, to attend the meetings of public bodies,” Hunt said in an e-mail interview. “Public access to student government meetings allows students to know what decisions are being made and for what reasons. Access and public scrutiny promotes accountability and better government.”
Under the act, all meetings are presumptively open meetings, unless they fall under six exemptions that allow for a meeting to be closed, none of which ASUSU deals with, said Timothy Smith, a colleague of Hunt also specializing in First Amendment rights for Utah journalists.
The six exemptions deal with discussion of a person’s mental health, discussions of collective bargaining, discussions of pending imminent litigation, strategy sessions discussing real estate, discussions about the handling of security personnel, devices or systems, and criminal misconduct investigations. “Just because a meeting can be closed doesn’t mean it should be closed,” Smith said. “I think people are dismissing the gist of what the open information act is for. Open is better.”
Tiffany Evans, ASUSU adviser, said the AOF meetings were closed by last year’s Academic Senate due to an incorrect interpretation of one of the exemptions. She said she was unaware the meetings were closed, as she normally does not attend them.
The AOF is financed by student tuition and is designed to provide money for students who need financial help to attend conferences or to further other academic pursuits, Abernethy said.
Abernethy said when he and the rest of the Academic Senate were trained by last year’s leaders, they were told these meetings should be closed, and the current Academic Senate operated under that presumption. He said because the AOF meetings discuss personal financial matters of individuals, the meetings were closed to keep that information private.
“We were told these were closed-door meetings,” Abernethy said. “It seemed last year’s (Academic Senate) came up with it on their own and never consulted any advisers.”
Smith said tradition was no reason for closing a meeting, saying, “They have no basis for closing that meeting. That does not fall under the criteria to close a meeting. The presumption under the statute is the meeting is open. If there is a quorum of the government entity present, there is a presumption the meeting is open.”
The closing of meetings also violated the ASUSU Constitution, which has no provisions for closing a meeting. On the contrary, in Article II, Section 5 of the ASUSU Constitution, under procedures, both the ASUSU Executive Council and the Academic Senate must “conduct and publicize open meetings, which shall be advertised no less than 24 hours prior to the meeting time.”
At another point in the ASUSU Constitution regarding financial reports, it states, “Financial reports from any organization spending ASUSU funds shall be made available to any member of the ASUSU.”
Because all students at USU are members of ASUSU, the reports from the meetings should be released to students anyway, negating the reason for closing the meetings.
Within an hour of learning the details of the Utah Open and Public Meetings Act, Abernethy investigated why the meetings were closed to begin with and talked to university legal counsel to learn there was no reason to keep the meetings closed, and he subsequently declared all meetings to be open.
“That was what was passed on and there was a belief since they were translating that as a personnel issue,” Evans said. “I commend Kevin for his thorough research. He also wanted to clarify that with the legal counsel on campus. Kevin wanted to do that because he had some senators saying the same thing. It’s all clarified and I apologize for that confusion. This is good. Every now and again you need to re-look at things and make sure things don’t go by the wayside. This has been a perfect example of checks and balances.”
Abernethy said he thinks having the AOF meetings open to the press and public is a good thing because it allows students to see other students benefiting from the funds.
Evans agreed, saying, “Academic Opportunity Fund is something we would want to know because this is such a great thing.”
Upon learning ASUSU rectified the situation, Hunt said, “I’m glad the student officers reconsidered their decision and are allowing access. Their decision shows good judgment and an appreciation of the value of openness and transparency.”
The Academic Opportunity Fund meetings are held, when required, on Monday evenings following the Academic Senate meetings in the Senate Chambers on the third floor the Taggart Student Center and are open to the public.
-seth.h@aggiemail.usu.edu