The Legislature should fix this mess in Chapel Hill | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    In case you have missed it (most likely ignored it) you might be interested in the Kabuki Dance that is going on at UNC-Ch. Here's the background.

    It has been learned that UNC created, offered and allowed athletes to take courses that seldom met and apparently had no requirements except some flimsy papers in order to get, not only credit, but grades sufficient to enhance the athlete's GPA. Surprise, surprise. That's an old story.

    But what has come out recently are reports of just how blatant the problem is. So blatant in fact that it is hard to imagine the Top Dogs at The University did not know what was going on.

    So most recently, the new Chancellor, who was not employed by UNC at the time, has more or less said "we blew it." She has acknowledged that the problem existed and that it was pretty bad (had to be for her to admit it.)

    Still not much news there.

    But what is fast becoming the real story is beginning to come to light. It's the old Nixon Syndrome of the "cover-up is worse than the crime."

    UNC officials are trying to keep the information hidden by hiding behind "privacy rights" even though the state law says that any document produced by a state agency is public information, with some specific exceptions.

    The Raleigh News & Observer has been trying to get a spreadsheet that a lady, who tutored athletes for several years, developed while she was working on her graduate thesis. That thesis used records of the athletes who were taking the bogus courses. Mind you, the N&O requested only the data within the spreadsheet that was labeled "sport," "course title," and "semester." The University types are contending that you can take that information and determine the names of the athletes and that therefore the information is protected by privacy laws.

    So the N&O has sued the University (read: taxpayers' pocketbooks).

    The N&O will win. No doubt about it. But what they get will be more or less meaningless six months from now. Nobody outside Orange County will care. But they should. The folk on Jones Street should care. Here's why.

    This situation is a prime example of how government bureaucrats (and academics are the worst of the lot) use the public records law to not only not disclose public information but they use those same laws to protect themselves from things that would be detrimental to their best interests. In other words, they use the public records laws to cover up their imbroglios.

    We have a suspicion that once the records are obtained, what will be learned is that the shenanigans were so pervasive that it would have been impossible for reasonably competent administrators to not only not know about what was going on but not be complicit therein. But again, we all knew that already.

    What should come out of this story is that the Legislature should reform the open meetings and public records laws of North Carolina. Those reforms should be directed at putting a stop to bureaucrats covering up their bones and skeletons.

    One, but certainly not the only, reform that is needed is to hold the bureaucrats personally liable if they violate the open meetings and public records laws. That is, if they are sued they should have to defend themselves out of their own pocket if they lose. The tax payers should not have to supply them with legal services if they are guilty of violating the law. And if they lose they should have to pay both sides' legal bills.

    With all the smart people we have in the Legislature and working for the legislators they ought to be able to craft a very simple law that takes care of this situation. It should be pretty simple to write a law that says: "If you violate the law, you pay. You don't send the legal bills to the taxpayers."

    But don't hold your breath taxpayers. There are few salons on Jones Street willing to stand up to the bureaucrats, especially the academics, who use the privacy laws to protect themselves.