New Mexico State University has been under scrutiny lately for two controversies. One involves the mismanagement and abuse of time and materials in the Office of Facilities and Services, and the other involves the university’s attempt to keep information about donors secret.
The university has handled the first appropriately, taking steps to ensure the integrity of a police investigation and communicating openly with the public and media about the situation. That has made the university’s attempt to stonewall the media on the second situation even more jarring.
News first became public in May that university police were investigating the possibility that employees were using school funds and materials for construction projects on private homes. The university also announced that month that it was using money from secret donors to boost the compensation of President Michael Martin and then-men’s basketball coach Reggie Theus.
The police department reports to the vice president who, at the time, also oversaw OFS. By the time word of the OFS investigation reached the public, Martin had already decided that the police would report to him on the investigation to avoid the appearance of a conflict. He talked openly with the media about the situation.
That’s also how things started with the situation involving donors. But when I reported on the gray area that exists when university foundations try to keep donor lists secret, and suggested that the university’s attempt to keep the records under wraps might not withstand a legal challenge, the university clammed up. Its stonewalling of the media even included a ridiculous claim that a new agreement between the university and foundation wasn’t public even after it had been discussed and approved by the regents in a public meeting.
Since late July, the university has repeatedly placed roadblocks in front of requests for records. The foundation simply ignored my last records request, I’m assuming based on its assertion that it’s not subject to the state’s public records law.
Not only are the university and foundation asserting that information about donors is secret, but they’re also asserting that the public doesn’t have a right to know how much the foundation is providing for Martin’s compensation in the form of the purchase of a vehicle and the cost of insuring it. Because of that, at this point, the public doesn’t even know how much Martin is being compensated for running the university.
There’s no transparency or accountability.
By contrast, the university last week placed senior managers of OFS on leave or on temporary reassignments to separate them from that situation while the university tries to address problems identified in an audit that found more than $628,000 in cost overruns on nine projects. The university police have brought misdemeanor charges against one employee, and at least two are no longer employees as a result of the probe.
The university continues to update the public on the situation, even releasing the audit before such action was required.
While the university is charging $1 per page for any documents related to the foundation situation, and requiring formal records requests for documents, it published the audit and the university’s plan for dealing with the OFS situation on its Web site for anyone to access free of charge.
The university should be commended for its response to the problems in OFS. It is handling the situation with integrity and transparency. Now, it should apply those same principles to the foundation situation.
That doesn’t mean voluntarily releasing the donor records – that’s an honest dispute that will be settled in the coming months with the help of the attorney general and legislators. But, instead of putting road blocks in front of records that are undeniably public, it should make access to them easy by accepting records requests via e-mail, like just about every other government in the state already does, and dropping the cost it charges per page to a reasonable fee.
The university’s current attitude on the donor situation makes it difficult for the public to access public records and creates an appearance that there’s something to hide.