By Daniel.
Citizens of this state have the unalienable right to request records from the institutions that rule and represent them. Evergreen’s consistent failure to respond to these records requests in a timely fashion shows that our administration see themselves not as our representatives but as unaccountable rulers.
Evergreen is now overdue on more than 15 of our public records requests. The CPJ staff continues to receive requests filed in 2017-2018, and a fall request for active public record requests shows that the college still has active requests from national reporters related to the 2017 protests. They have had almost two years to respond to these requests, which by any measure is not a “reasonable” amount of time to assemble and review documents.
At times I suspect that this college is not responding to public records on-time to save face. This is a bad PR strategy, as this editorial demonstrates. Furthermore, it is illegal. It is an egregious violation of our fundamental rights as citizens of Washington State.
Evergreen’s sole public records officer quit in early April, and Evergreen did not note this change in the state registry, as they may be required to do so under state law. Public records are now administered by Chief Budget Officer Holly Joseph. I’m sure she has plenty of other work to do, as we seem to be in another one of these perpetual budget crises. Evergreen has not yet listed this open position in their job postings.
This college cannot simultaneously commit itself to equity and inclusion while excluding its students from accessing public records in a timely fashion. Untimely public records responses prevent us from ensuring that Evergreen’s commitments to equity go beyond hiring speakers and re-naming classrooms. The Evergreen administration is not a cohort of Maoists or Leninists, who we should trust to implement social justice in secret and without checks and balances. Our active requests include asks for texts between Joey Gibson and Evergreen police, discussions of hidden camera purchases, communications between the Department of Homeland Security and Evergreen police, and emails related to the college’s enforcement of its own Patriot Act Policy. While “if you have nothing to fear, you have nothing to hide” is some fetid bullshit when applied to the individual, it is a legitimate indictment of our school when it deliberately conceals its actions which are done in our name.
Late responses to assignments may be acceptable in some Evergreen classes, but it is unacceptable to receive the same devil-may-care attitude from administrators. Students pay to learn, and are due this freedom. Admin are paid to administrate, and one of their duties is to administrate timely responses to public records. They should immediately hire a cohort of temporary staff to work through their enormous backlog of records requests.
Some students receive reductions in credit when they fail to complete assignments in a timely manner. Sometimes they drop out. If the Evergreen administration can’t take the heat, they need to either drop out or receive a reduction in credit.
The Board of Trustees and the Legislature should seriously consider complying with the IWW’s demands for a slash in administrative pay if the college administrators can’t do their jobs. If President Bridges is consistently unable make his staff do their jobs, he should quit or be replaced, immediately.
The Board will meet in July to evaluate Bridges performance, and they encourage you to email comments to tescbot@evergreen.edu and hariss@evergreen.ed. If Evergreen fails to resolve its public records problem, faculty, staff, students, and every citizen of this state should strongly consider a vote of “no confidence.”
