News

WISCONSIN -- Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen issued an opinion Dec. 17 that provides guidelines for determining whether state open meetings and public records laws are applicable to student governments in the University of Wisconsin system.

The opinion was issued in response to a request filed by University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee journalism students who asked the attorney general in April to determine the applicability of the laws to these student bodies after having difficulty accessing information.

Though the opinion did not state that any specific student organization in the University of Wisconsin system was subject to the open meetings law, the attorney general's guidelines explain that organizations that have "shared governance," or the ability to exercise government authority -- such as University of Wisconsin student governments -- will be considered a governmental body and subject to the law, said Robert Dreps, an attorney with Godfrey and Kahn in Madison, Wisc., who reviewed the student's request for an attorney general opinion.

"The framework he provided makes clear that those organizations that do in fact exercise shared governance authority in the university system are subject to the open meetings law," Dreps said.

Jonathan Anderson, the special projects editor for the UWM Post and one of the students who filed the request, said he views the opinion as a success and feels it will have a positive effect on the Post's coverage of student governments.

"It gives us an argument when we make a records request to a University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee student government.