Freedom of Information Oklahoma Inc. faults Oklahoma State University's secrecy
FROM STAFF REPORTS
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Published: March 15, 2009
The Board of Regents for Oklahoma State University and the A&M Colleges and the OSU administration were given the Black Hole Award on Saturday by open government group Freedom of Information Oklahoma Inc. for their efforts to "thwart the public’s right to know.”
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Openness awards
Winning awards for their commitment to openness and public records were:
→Mark Thomas, executive vice president of the Oklahoma Press Association. Thomas won the Ben Blackstock Award. "Thomas is recognized for tirelessly protecting the public’s right to know from infringements by the state Legislature and others,” the group said. Thomas has been manager of the Oklahoma Press Association since 1995, succeeding Blackstock, the award’s namesake.
→Carolyn Kusler, Wagoner County clerk. Kusler, a former police officer and teacher, was re-elected to a second term as clerk in 2008. She was recognized for her office’s efforts to put county land records and other information online. The Wagoner County clerk’s Web site is at www.wagonercountyclerk.com.
FOI Oklahoma presented the awards after the Oklahoma Sunshine 2009 conference held at The Oklahoma Publishing Co. in Oklahoma City.
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Science and Technology, Education, Sciences, Higher Education, Colleges and Universities, Astronomy
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The Daily O'Collegian revealed this past spring that when regents object to proposals by the schools they oversee, university leaders withdraw them from consideration before the agenda is made public 24 hours in advance of the meeting.
The result was almost no discussion in front of the public and only unanimous votes since at least January 2006, the newspaper found.
Regents defended making decisions regarding their $1 billion annual operation this way because most of their matters are “routine in nature” and it saves time at the formal meetings.
“Otherwise, we’d be there for three or four days,” board Chairwoman Lou Watkins told the newspaper.
The Daily O’Collegian’s stories can be found at:
http://ocolly.com/2008/04/30/regents’-voting-record-under-investigation/
http://ocolly.com/2008/04/17/employee-phone-policy-violates-open-records-law-experts-say/
http://ocolly.com/2008/04/17/osu-could-cut-costs-by-changing-cell-policy/