Editor’s Note: Joey Stipek and Nick Harrison are both former Daily employees.
An OU student journalist is suing President David Boren, along with the director of the Open Records Office for denying him access to records he believes are public.
Joey Stipek, film and media studies senior, filed the lawsuit against Boren and Rachel McCombs after they failed to provide him, and other student journalists, electronic copies or database information of parking citations issued to students in the spring 2012 semester, according to the petition filed with the Cleveland County Court on Friday.
When Stipek was working for The Daily in fall 2012, he filed a request for the records to see if there was any preferential treatment given to individuals — namely student athletes — in regard to parking tickets, Stipek’s attorney Nick Harrison said in a letter to Boren.
Stipek first requested copies of the tickets around Sept. 10. The records were given with no information about the person or persons to whom the vehicles belonged, according to the petition.
Thus, Daily reporter Arianna Pickard requested the same information again, this time asking for the names of the persons, around Sept. 21, according to the petition.
Around Oct. 1 Pickard’s records request was denied. McCombs said the information was protected under the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, meaning they were exempt from the guidelines set by the Oklahoma Open Records Act, according to the petition.
FERPA is a federal law that protects students’ educational records, such as transcripts and demographic information.
Stipek requested similar records twice more, on April 13 and April 17, getting denied each time, according to the petition.
In denying the parking ticket requests, McCombs said the university considers that information to be an education record protected under FERPA, according to Daily archives.
“Any record that contains information that is directly related to a student and is maintained by the university is protected by FERPA,” McCombs said in an email, according to Daily archives.
However, because these records aren’t kept private — being left on the windshield of a student’s vehicle where anyone can grab them — they aren’t confidential, said Frank LoMonte, Student Press Law Center executive director, according to Daily archives.
“Would the college put your report card underneath your windshield wiper, or a copy of your transcript?” he said.
As well, the tickets aren’t educational records because they are issued to cars, not students, he said.
A copy of Harrison’s letter was delivered to Boren on Monday. The petition was sent to Boren, McCombs, OU Legal Counsel and the OU Board of Regents.
