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Earlier this year, President Barack Obama issued a memorandum on open government. The federal government, long a bastion of secrecy, will now be "creating an unprecedented level of openness in government."
It is refreshing that the country's leader is pledging openness. It would be nice, however, if another president closer to home - E. Gordon Gee - could follow Obama's lead.
Ohio State's president has steadfastly defended the Board of Trustees' secret executive sessions, which the public is not allowed to observe.
Executive sessions are not unusual. Organizations that spend taxpayer money use them to discuss personnel issues, real estate deals and lawsuits. But at OSU, no one keeps a record of what goes on in these sessions. The board meets quarterly and regularly spends hours in the closed meetings.
Gee doesn't think it's necessary to keep minutes of the meetings. He told The Lantern earlier this month that if, for example, the board had publicly talked about buying the Holiday Inn on Lane Avenue before the purchase, the price would have gone up twofold.
Fair point. But why couldn't they release the discussion after the purchase was final?
"Because of the fact that it's still confidential," according to Gee.
Would there be a chance to take minutes and then release them much later?
"After I'm dead," Gee replied. "There are policies in the federal government about that very issue. And they do not release many of those (minutes) until after the people who have been engaged in them have died."
Citing the federal government's precedent to defend your own group's secrecy is flawed. And to compare the purchase of a $19 million hotel to the government's protection of national security-related secrets just doesn't work.
Ohio law does not require minutes for executive sessions. But that doesn't mean it's right. In fact, in Florida the state requires that a court reporter create a transcript of closed government meetings. The transcripts are made public when the issue is resolved.
Frank Deaner, president of the Ohio Coalition for Open Government, agrees that Ohio should be more transparent.
"University officials should be looking long and hard at what could be released rather than focusing on what could not be released," he said.
A lack of transparency isn't anything new at OSU. Tim Smith covered the trustees 44 years ago for The Lantern and the Kent State University journalism professor said, "we complained but it did no good."
Not talking about something like the Holiday Inn purchase after the deal is complete doesn't make sense, Smith said.
"If you... made the decision to buy the place and you bought it, and you have minutes from the executive session, I don't know why you wouldn't want to make it public," he said.
Advocates of closed meetings point out that the trustees don't vote in closed sessions. They must vote in public.
Is that really good enough, though?
Adam Goldstein, an attorney with the Student Press Law Center, summed it up well. "Providing minutes weeks or months after the fact," he said, "is not a very high burden."
Tom Knox is is The Lantern managing editor. He can be reached at knox.105@osu.edu.
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