The Post has retained legal counsel to pressure Ohio University to release documents used to create dean evaluations before the provost releases her official evaluations on May 20.
Last year, The Post requested faculty surveys used to create dean evaluations on April 3 and received the documents April 17. This year, The Post requested those surveys Feb. 7. They were submitted by faculty on March 21, but OU has maintained it will not release the records until May 20, when the provost is due to complete her evaluation of the deans.
Faculty evaluate their deans annually. Faculty surveys go to committees in each college that compile the data into a report for the provost, and the provost issues a draft report that she sends back to the evaluation committees. After the committees look over the report, it goes back to the provost and she issues a final evaluation, which also takes into account the dean's self evaluation.
Administrators asked The Post to refrain from covering the evaluations or requesting documents until after the provost issues her final reports.
The Office of Institutional Research compiled the faculty evaluations and sent them to college committees, and the committees sent reports to the provost's office by April 18.
Joseph A. Tomain, an attorney with Cincinnati-based Frost, Brown, Todd LLC. will represent The Post without charge.
University spokeswoman Sally Linder said OU has not decided whether to release the documents in parts before May 20.
Originally the legal department was looking at it as not a final record
or not a record until all the parts and pieces were in she said. The final decision is still pending as to whether the record is complete and ready for release as a large document or whether parts and pieces are separate records.
Post Editor in Chief Rick Rouan said the newspaper sought counsel because it believes OU has violated open records law by not producing the documents in a timely manner.
They've been created at a public university
they're being stored in a public building in a public office
Rouan said. We think that's unacceptable [to not get them until May 20]. We think that's a violation of the Ohio Revised Code and we thought it necessary to pursue stronger action.
Linder made clear OU does intend to release all the records eventually.
At no point would we refuse to give The Post each and every piece of the evaluation about every dean
she said.
John Burns, who directed OU's Office of Legal Affairs for 36 years and retired this year, said he wasn't sure why OU has changed its practice of releasing the documents from previous years.
There was obviously a different response
he said. The facts speak for themselves. Last year
they were provided on request.
OU appointed John Biancamano interim director of Legal Affairs on Feb. 12. Rouan said the paper views it as a timeliness issue.
As a newspaper we have stayed committed . . . to the flow of public information
to getting public information in a timely fashion
he said. We feel like at this particular junction the info has not been relayed to us in a timely fashion as defined by the O.R.C.
The University of Toledo has a similar dean evaluation process to OU, but faculty evaluate deans online. The provost then meets with the dean to discuss his or her progress and compiles a report based on all the findings.
Toledo Media Relations Manager Jon Strunk said he assumed the surveys would be considered public records and that they would be made available upon request before the provost's final report.
OU faculty have been reluctant to switch to online evaluations because many are afraid someone would be able to trace their responses back to them.
Strunk said Toledo's faculty has seemed excited about the online process.
Our IT department is able to do it in such a way that it does end up being anonymous and you can't tell who it's from
and that's emphasized
