Virginia Tech officials are declining to release initial findings of a U.S. Department of Education investigation into the university’s Clery Act compliance during the April 16, 2007 campus shootings.
According to documents obtained by the Collegiate Times, the Department of Education sent a request for documents to President Charles Steger on Sept. 4, 2007. The university complied on Oct. 3, 2007.
Hincker said the university received initial findings from the Department of Education, “a couple weeks ago,” but will not release them, citing a Freedom of Information Act exception.
The exception cited grants an exemption to “Working papers and correspondence of the Office of the Governor; Lieutenant Governor; the Attorney General; the members of the General Assembly or the Division of Legislative Services; the mayor or chief executive officer of any political subdivision of the Commonwealth; or the president or other chief executive officer of any public institution of higher education in Virginia.”
It goes on to define “working papers” as “those records prepared by or for an above-named public official for his personal or deliberative use.”
Megan Rhyne, a Virginia Coalition for Open Government representative, said in an e-mail the initial findings might not qualify as a working paper because Tech did not commission the investigation.
“If the university asked for it, then, yes, for as long as the president uses the report to craft future statements/policies/responses, then it is and remains a working paper,” her response to the Collegiate Times said. “If the study was initiated independently of the university and the president has been given an advance copy as a courtesy, then it seems the ‘prepared by or for’ language would not apply.”
Hincker said the findings are working papers because Steger is preparing to respond to them.
“This is a draft report for the president’s deliberation so he can respond to the (Department of Education) and they can issue then a final report,” Hincker said. “They have asked us to respond to this draft report.”
Jane Glickman, a Department of Education spokeswoman, described the same process as Hincker and said the final report would not be completed soon.
“They have a chance to respond to it and provide input and we will then come out with what we call the ‘Final program review determination letter,’” Glickman said. “That is public, but that is months away.”
Hincker said the university would grant any requests to the information if it were a final report. According to Hincker, offering the university a chance to respond to initial findings is standard Department of Education procedure.
“It’s not like we’re trying to keep secrets,” Hincker said. “The issue here is that it’s an opportunity for the university to evaluate the analysis and provide our response to the (Department of Education). We’re just following their process.”
A version of this article appeared in the Feb 24 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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what Hincker means to say is, "we really screwed up...we're going to try to put off anything definitively until less attention is given to this topic". in other words, we'll find any loophole we can find under the freedom of information act!
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