Issue date: 6/2/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Vanessa Sanchez / Daily Lobo Faculty Senate President Jacqueline Hood speaks about privacy rights during a regents meeting in the SUB on May 28. Faculty and staff are concerned that stalkers and identity thieves will gain access to their private information if the regents pass proposed policy amendments.

After an hour of heated debate between faculty, staff and University officials, the Board of Regents voted May 28 to revise UNM's policy on inspection of public records.

Eight revisions to the policy were initially proposed, but only four were adopted.

The regents amended the policy to provide the public with more access to

University records, and information about candidates seeking employment, current employees and UNM's internal auditing practices.

The regents decided to postpone addressing the remaining four revisions, which deal with confidentiality of faculty records and the amount and type of University personnel information that would be made available, after they were met with opposition from faculty and staff during the meeting.

The amendments will be up for a vote again at the next regents' meeting August 12.

Jamie Koch, president of the Board of Regents, said the changes need to be made to the policy so that the University will be in compliance with state laws.

"We're not the Legislature," Koch said. "All we're saying is that we want to make sure that we are conformed with the law in regards to open records."

Faculty Senate President Jacqueline Hood said the University was obligated to consult its personnel before amending a policy that would affect their right to protect personal information.

Hood said the regents were violating the statutes of the faculty handbook by trying to rewrite a policy without the Faculty Senate's permission.

"No one here is saying that there should be secrecy in terms of what goes on at public institutions," Hood said. "As a matter of fact, it should be open. Nobody is disagreeing with that. No one here is saying that we should not comply with the law."

But Hood and other faculty members said the regents have some flexibility in terms of implementing the law and should consider faculty and staff suggestions about records requests.

Continued...

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