On January 10, 2014, The Chronicle of Higher Education published an opinion piece written by Postsecondary Teaching and Learning  Associate Professor Karen Miksch and her colleagues Neal Hutchens (Pennsylvania State University) and Jeffrey Sun (North Dakota State University) entitled “Open-Records Requests and Academic Freedom.”

The impetus for the column was the recent open-records request made by a conservative private institute seeking the emails, records, and other documents of Gene Nichol, a University of North Carolina law professor and director of the law school’s Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity. The request was made after the professor published an opinion piece criticizing the Governor of North Carolina, Pat McCrory.

Miksch and her colleagues note, “The problem with the unfolding episode in North Carolina isn’t the desire to challenge Nichol’s views and assertions. The problem is using an open-records request as a strategy to suppress debate. A law intended to add transparency and openness to government operations has been used to harass and silence.”

Read the full article here.