A Case For Placing Public-University Foundations Under the Existing Oversight Regime of Freedom of Information Laws

Abstract

Nonprofit foundations that exist to raise and manage private funds for public universities have grown in power and prominence in the last thirty-five years as state support for public education wanes and the privatization movement transforms the traditional structures of governance. Yet most states still have not devised an effective way to address or define these organizations vis-à-vis public-records laws. In arguing for statutory acknowledgement and regulation of university-affiliated foundations as public entities or equivalents thereof, this article examines existing state laws and proposes how legislatures might best account for these organizations.