After an hour of heated debate between faculty, staff and University officials, the Board of Regents voted May 28 to revise UNM's policy on inspection of publicˇrecords.
Eight revisions to the policy were initially proposed, but only four were adopted.
The regents amended the policy to provide the public with more access to
University records, and information about candidates seeking employment, current employees and UNM's internal auditing practices.
The regents decided to postpone addressing the remaining four revisions, which deal with confidentiality of faculty records and the amount and type of University personnel information that would be made available, after they were met with opposition from faculty and staff during the meeting.
The amendments will be up for a vote again at the next regents' meeting August 12.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Jamie Koch, president of the Board of Regents, said the changes need to be made to the policy so that the University will be in compliance with state laws.
"We're not the Legislature," Koch said. "All we're saying is that we want to make sure that we are conformed with the law in regards to open records."
Faculty Senate President Jacqueline Hood said the University was obligated to consult its personnel before amending a policy that would affect their right to protect personal information.
Hood said the regents were violating the statutes of the faculty handbook by trying to rewrite a policy without the Faculty Senate's permission.
"No one here is saying that there should be secrecy in terms of what goes on at public institutions," Hood said. "As a matter of fact, it should be open. Nobody is disagreeing with that. No one here is saying that we should not comply with the law."
But Hood and other faculty members said the regents have some flexibility in terms of implementing the law and should consider faculty and staff suggestions about records requests.
Some faculty members proposed informing the person whose records were requested that a request had been made, the name of the person making the request and how many times their records had been requested.
The University's legal counsel said there was no provision for such a procedure written in the law.
"It's a balance between the public's right to know and individual rights to privacy. That's always been the issue," Hood said.
After the Albuquerque Journal used the public records request law to get information on Director of Government Relations Marc Saavedra earlier this year, the regents employed three attorneys to investigate how the University can comply with the law immediately to avoid any lawsuits. The University lost a suit for public records in theˇpast.
UNM attorney Ron Segel said the University needs to change its inspection of public record policy to provide more access to the public and avoid incurring financial penalties by denying access to a public inquiry.
Anyone whose request for records is refused may go to court and be awarded damages and costs, Segel said.
"That penalty provision is very broad, very comprehensive and very stern," Segel said.
Hood said the regents need to consider the ramifications the policy changes could have on faculty and staff in terms of providing potential stalkers or identity thieves with personal information.
"Do you want to be responsible for this?" Hood said. "Is this some lawsuit that you want to live with in the future? Personally, I would rather have the Albuquerque Journal sue us for that information than have someone come up and say that she was stalked or harmed because of the decision that we made."
Regent Don Chalmers said he wanted to postpone further discussion of the policy until the next regents' meeting so that University staff and faculty have time to voice their concerns on the issue.
"We're trying to clarify a policy that complies with the law, and I want to be open with all of our operations that we use," Chalmers said. "I think another 76 days will make it a little bit clearer."
Regent Mel Eaves said even though the policy would not be fully addressed until the next meeting, faculty and staff can expect more changes to be made in order to comply with state law.
"In the past there have been policies at this school that really do not accord with the law," Eaves said. "I think it's unfortunate that the people here at the school have gotten comfortable living with those laws."
Eaves said it might not be possible to have a policy that complies with the law and also gives protection to faculty and staff.
