Freedom of Information Foundation’s Student Project Results in Record Fine

Contact: 
Pamela Mayo Clark, Director of Education & Special Projects

Phone: (512) 377-1575

Cellular: (512)
587-7757    

Email:   pamela.mayo.clark@foift.org 

Website:  http://www.lightofdayproject.org/clery.php

 

 

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION FOUNDATION’S STUDENT PROJECT

RESULTS IN RECORD FINE

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

AUSTIN, TEXAS – Friday, November 6, 2009:  When Erin Cooper was a
journalism student at Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas, in the
Fall of 2006, she participated in a student program of The Freedom of
Information Foundation of Texas. 
The Foundation’s program is called the “Light of Day” project.  Journalism faculty at Texas’
universities participate in the Foundation’s statewide topic to teach students
how to use public records, including the state’s Open Records Act, to get
information that government agencies might not otherwise provide willingly.

Little did Cooper know
that her curiosity about unrevealed crimes at Tarleton State would lead to the
largest fine ever levied against a Texas college or university for violation of
the law that mandates accurate and complete reports on college campus
crimes.  Three years later, as a
reporter for the Stephenville Empire-Tribune,
Cooper wrote the news story that her alma mater received the state’s record
fine of $137,500 from the U.S. Dept. of Education for not accurately reporting
the total number of crimes, such as sexual assault and robbery.  The story broke online the day before
by the student newspaper at Tarleton State, The J-TAC.

The “Light of Day”
project that year was the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and
Campus Crime Statistics Act, known simply as the Clery Act.  Enforced by the Dept. of Education, the
federal law mandates full, timely and public reports about crime on college
campuses throughout the U.S.  As
part of her training with the “Light of Day” project, Cooper wrote the open
records request to Tarleton State’s officials seeking copies of all on-campus
crime reports.

In response, what she
and other students in Dan Malone’s journalism class received to their official
request for information indicated that sexual assaults, robberies and
burglaries at Tarleton State were not fully revealed in public reports.  Malone, a Pulitzer-prize winning
investigative reporter, encouraged his students to dig deeper for additional
documentation.

“It takes someone like
Dan to spark the embers of passion for the public’s right to know,” Cooper
said.  “Because of him and The
Freedom of Information Foundation’s ‘Light of Day’ project, we students were
able to shed light on the real situation about crime on our campus.” 

As a result of Texas
journalism students’ findings and analysis of their campuses’ adherence to the
Clery Act, nineteen news articles were written about under-reporting crime at
the state’s public and private universities. Their statewide look at the
failure of many Texas colleges to fully comply with the Clery Act won first and
second prizes in regional and statewide journalism competitions, as well as a
national Jeanne Clery Campus Safety Award, given by the
nonprofit organization Security on Campus Inc. 

The group of
journalism students at Tarleton State won the “Mark of Excellence” Award from
the Texas & Oklahoma region of the Society of Professional
Journalists.  The “Mark of
Excellence” is the first-place award in the student category from the largest
and oldest organization for professional journalists.

Dan Malone and two
other faculty members in the Light of Day project won the Freedom of Information
Foundation’s highest honor, the James Madison Award. 

Malone is the current Co-Chair of FOIFT’s “Light
of Day” project.

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The Freedom of Information Foundation
of Texas is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to enhancing the
public’s right to know about their government and other public entities. 
The organization is supported by tax-deductible donations, as well as grants
from foundations and private citizens. Membership information is available at
www.foift.org.  The Freedom of Information Foundation’s main offices are
at 3001 North Lamar, Suite 302 in Austin, Texas 78705.