Chairman of University of Michigan's faculty senate calls FOIA request 'harassing'

[Bozita]

Source: Detroit Free Press

Chairman of University of Michigan's faculty senate calls FOIA request 'harassing'
7:30 PM, Apr. 4, 2011
DAVID JESSE
FREE PRESS EDUCATION REPORTER


Public records requests for University of Michigan professors' e-mails by groups trying to prove political activism by faculty members are "harassing," the chairman of U-M's faculty senate said today.

"To sit idly by and have no reaction on this, that's imprudent," said Ed Rothman, chair of the faculty Senate's Advisory Committee on University Affairs, on the recent Freedom of Information Act request by the conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

The Midland-based think tank has sent FOIA requests to Michigan State University, Wayne State University and U-M seeking, among other things, e-mails from labor studies departments in which the terms "Scott Walker," "Wisconsin," "Madison" or "Maddow" were used -- references to the furor in Wisconsin over Gov. Walker's efforts to restrict bargaining for most government workers.

The center said it's looking for evidence of professor's engaging in political efforts on taxpayer-funded computers.

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