A coalition of 10 media outlets filed a lawsuit Monday against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill over the university's refusal to release information about employees punished or dismissed in the wake of the Wainstein report on academic irregularities. This is the third public records lawsuit against the university since the academic-athletic scandal began in 2010.
A coalition of 10 media outlets filed a lawsuit Monday against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill over its refusal to release information about the dismissals or punishments of certain employees in the wake of the Wainstein report. The Wainstein report was the culmination of an investigation into academic irregularities at the university that benefited a large number of athletes. When the report was released in October, Chancellor Carol Folt announced that nine employees had been fired or disciplined as a result of the findings.
Subsequently, the university has refused to identify the nine people fired or disciplined. It has also not provided discipline information about specific employees when requested. The State Personnel System Act makes public certain portions of an employee’s personnel file, including the date and type of each demotion, suspension or demotion for disciplinary reasons. The university’s position is that the information cannot be released while administrative appeals are pending.
The coalition of media outlets includes WRAL, News & Observer, The Charlotte Observer, The Daily Tar Heel, the Herald-Sun, WTVD, the Associated Press, Time Warner Cable News, BH Media, which publishes the News & Record and Winston-Salem Journal, and Media General, which broadcasts WNCN and WNCT.
A similar coalition of outlets sued in 2010 over records the university claimed were covered by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), including parking tickets issued to athletes and the football coach’s cellphone records. In January of this year, the News & Observer sued over data that was shared with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, which is the university’s accrediting agency.
Read coverage of the latest lawsuit from WRAL here, and the Associated Press here. A copy of the lawsuit can be found here.