A student news organization is battling a Florida university for the right to know the names of Student Government officials in meetings and documents.
On Friday, Knight News, Inc., a student newspaper, won against the University of Central Florida in a court case that began in 2013.
In an opinion released Friday from Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal, the appellate court found that a previous court should have required UCF to reveal the names of Student Government officials accused of engaging in misconduct in impeachment documents.
Previously, both the trial court and the appellate court supported the university’s claim that it could cover the names of students in Student Government documents because of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, said Justin Hemlepp, an attorney for Knight News.
“If UCF somehow had won this or still finds a way to do so, it will force every other Student Government in this state at a public university or community college to shut down their records to the public, to shut down their meetings to the public,” he said. “And all the sudden all of these Student Governments will be operating in secrecy.”
The university could not be reached for comment.
In court documents, the university stated that FERPA protects the rights of student information, including SG officials.
In March, Knight News filed another lawsuit against UCF after the university closed an election commissions meeting to the public. The paper is arguing that Florida’s Sunshine Law allows public access to public officials, including those in SG.
Knights News is waiting for a response from UCF.
“It’s a different school, two hours away, but it could come to our backyard,” UF SG’s Solicitor General Nicholas Gurney said.
Gurney, who advises UF senators and students on UF’s Constitution and codes, was a former attorney general for UCF’s Student Government Association (SGA).
UF SG adviser James Tyger declined to comment on the cases and directed the Alligator to UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes.
Sikes wrote in an email that the university is keeping an eye on the ongoing litigation to see how it could impact UF.
In addition to the two cases filed by Knight News, Jacob Milich, a student who attempted to run for UCF Student Body president, also filed a case against the university.
UCF’s elections commission removed him from the ballot following a closed-to-the-public meeting, he said.
The 25-year-old Marine veteran said he offered to drop the lawsuit if he was put back on the ballot for the elections. The university declined, he said.
“We’re preparing for trial, essentially,” he said. “It’s a fight worth fighting. This cannot happen again.”
Chad Binette, the assistant vice president for UCF News & Information, wrote in an email that the university’s SGA is governed by its own procedures, and candidates such as Milich are required to follow the rules set by their SGA.
“During the SGA campaign, Mr. Milich asked a circuit court to intervene in the process,” Binette said. “A judge denied his request for a temporary injunction, and we believe his lawsuit is meritless.”
The 2016 lawsuit was launched under Brigitte Snedeker, the news editor for Knight News. Friday’s opinion validated the paper’s fight for transparency in SGA, the 20-year-old UCF radio-television and Latin American studies junior said.
“We’re just really happy that this motion came through today, and it just shows that nonprofit news organizations can make a difference against the big guys,” Snedeker said.
@MelissaGomez004
mgomez@alligator.org
