Professor burned by sunshine law

Academe, Jul/Aug 1999

Professor Burned by Sunshine Law

A PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF Wisconsin-Superior has lost an appeal in his bid to prevent the institution from releasing parts of his personnel record. In April, a year after two local media outlets sought the documents under the state's open-records law, John Marder, a tenured member of the university's communications department, saw his request for an injunction rejected by a three-judge panel of the state appeals court. Marder's files contain information about a sexual harassment claim of which he was absolved.

In their April 8 ruling, the judges held that state residents have "a substantial legitimate interest" in knowing about "complaints against faculty" at public universities, regardless of whether the conduct in question is "actual or alleged." The ruling lent credence to the fears of some observers that sunshine laws, intended as a shield against secrecy in government, might be used as a weapon to garner and divulge sensitive information about faculty members on state-run campuses.

"The AAUP has long urged a balanced approach to the release of university records so as to recognize interests of privacy, academic freedom, and protection against outside interference in university governance, as well the public's right to know," says AAUP counsel Jonathan Alger. "In the university context, we hope that open-records laws are interpreted with all of these values in mind."

Marder, who maintains a full-time teaching load at the university, will not appeal his claim to the state supreme court. "Cases like this face a difficult precedent," concedes Aaron Halstead, Marder's lawyer. Halstead cited the scope and strength of the state's sunshine law, which mandates disclosure of records at public institutions.

The ruling clears the way for Marder's files to be released to members of the local media, who have already reported extensively on the case.