A settlement has been reached in a months-long lawsuit between Cal Poly Mustang News student reporter Elizabeth Wilson, represented by the First Amendment Coalition (FAC), and the Board of Trustees of the California State University (CSU) system.
The lawsuit— which was initially filed in April— claimed that the university failed to disclose public records which Wilson requested more than 18 months prior.
"This settlement will remind Cal Poly staff of their duties to the public and ensure that they come to the table to improve their process with students," said Annie Cappetta, a legal fellow at First Amendment Coalition, in a press release.
The student journalist reportedly filed three public records requests in 2022 while researching stories on campus sexual assault, labor violations alleged by Cal Poly student employees, and a top administrator’s failure to respond to sexual harassment and other complaints.
According to the FAC, Wilson never received the requested records, leading to the lawsuit being filed in April.
FAC officials say Cal Poly released 236 emails in response to Wilson in July, and that 21 emails were withheld as exempt from disclosure.
Friday's settlement reportedly stipulates that within three months, the university will convene a training session for all staff who process Public Records Act requests for the Cal Poly campus that informs them of their obligations under the act. The training will be recorded and publicly posted, according to the FAC.
The settlement also allegedly allows Mustang News reporters to meet with Cal Poly’s records staff in person every academic term over the next three years to discuss the status of their open requests, the criteria and process staff uses to queue requests for processing, and suggestions for overcoming any practical basis for delaying or denying access to records.
“I’m so pleased Cal Poly has agreed to a settlement, but it shouldn’t have required a lawsuit to assert my — and the Cal Poly community’s — right to this information,” said Wilson in a press release. “Access to records isn’t just important to journalists like myself, it’s important to anyone who seeks to hold institutions accountable.”
The settlement agreement and other legal documents in this case can be found on the FAC website.
