Since last spring, there has been this drama-filled lawsuit against the University to release its presidential search records to the public. Former Daily Reveille Editor in Chief Andrea Gallo was the first to file a lawsuit last spring. NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune and The Advocate quickly followed with their own joint lawsuit, demanding these records be made public.
On August 14, state District Judge Janice Clark found the University in contempt of court for not releasing the candidate names. Their sentencing was a fine of $500 a day for every day they have failed to release the records since April 30. These fines total approximately $63,000.
On top of this, after a court ruling Thursday, LSU must pay both The Advocate and The Times-Picayune around $80,000 for the lawsuit, which includes LSU reimbursing the newspapers for their attorney fees and court costs. This brings the total cost of the fines to around $143,000.
Basically, the University is being fined and continually pressured to release the candidate names from an election that happened more than half a year ago.
Even if Gallo’s lawsuit was dismissed, her suit was the spark that started the flame with the other newspapers.
Students and teachers should be concerned about how the University is going to afford these steep fines. I have TOPS and even then my fee bill is already higher than I’d like it to be. I’d rather not have to go into my own wallet to pay for the repercussions of these petty lawsuits.
What would knowing the names of these candidates even do at this point? Releasing the names of the other 34 candidates won’t benefit nor even remotely affect anyone, besides the candidates themselves.
Think about it. These 34 people are probably currently working at other universities around the country. They probably have positions of high power and respect. If their name was on a public list of candidates to be the president of another university, they would probably get fired or lose respect and credibility at their place of employment.
LSU President F. King Alexander said himself he wouldn’t have allowed his name to be considered for the presidency if he had not been guaranteed confidentiality.
Now I know that because LSU is a state-run school it must comply with Louisiana’s open records law. But in this instance, when the jobs of these candidates are at stake and they were guaranteed secrecy, this whole thing needs to be dropped.
Although these lawsuits may have started off as a genuine attempt at merely figuring out the candidates, I think the intent has shifted. This seems to have turned into a cheap publicity stunt and as a way to make these news organizations seem like cutthroat journalists.
I just don’t see how finding out information that’s more than seven months old makes any difference to the student body or the general public.
The Board of Supervisors and the University should be admired for keeping the names confidential. They told the candidates they would, and even after $143,000 in fines, threats from the court and the possibility of arrests, they are not budging.
That’s what I call integrity.
The negative attention should be shifted from the board and turned towards the forces causing and feeding the problem: the people filing these lawsuits.
The Board of Supervisors are standing up for what they believe is right — the candidates’ continued confidentiality — and for that they should be getting respect rather than threats and anger.
From a journalistic standpoint, I can recognize when something shifts from being a thirst for valuable information to a form of bullying.
Out of respect for the candidates’ well-being with their jobs and for our University and its leaders, this should be put behind us.
Mariel Gates is a 19-year-old mass communication sophomore from Baton Rouge.