Commission overturns university disclosure refusal

The commission overturned a university's refusal to disclose a university president's spending records, finding that retrieving documents from storage did not make the requested information nonexistent. The decision was made April 14.

On Feb. 6, the requester sought receipts, spending-approval documents and itemized details for President B's business-promotion spending at A University in 2024 and 2025. The requester argued that disclosure was especially necessary because the private university receives government financial support. The university said the records were held in an archive and that retrieving them for disclosure would require extraction and processing.

The commission said the Information Disclosure Act defines information as records, including electronic documents, that public institutions create or obtain and manage in the course of their duties. Institutions must decide whether to disclose requested information within 10 days of receiving a request. A disclosure decision must specify the time and place for access, while a denial must be notified in writing with the reason and appeal procedures. The commission found that treating the archived records as nonexistent because they had to be retrieved was unlawful and unjust.

The university said the requester no longer had a legal interest in the appeal because all requested material had been disclosed in its response to the commission. It submitted the material as attachments to its March 20 response, and the commission sent that response to the requester through its online administrative appeals system on March 23. The commission rejected the argument, citing a 2016 Supreme Court ruling that indirect delivery through an appeals proceeding is not disclosure under the Information Disclosure Act, and cancelled the university's Feb. 20 notice.