<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 14 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Wingdings;
panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Wingdings;
panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Tahoma;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Verdana;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
p.MsoAcetate, li.MsoAcetate, div.MsoAcetate
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-link:"Balloon Text Char";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:8.0pt;
font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";}
span.BalloonTextChar
{mso-style-name:"Balloon Text Char";
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-link:"Balloon Text";
font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";}
span.EmailStyle19
{mso-style-type:personal;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext;}
span.EmailStyle20
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>A friend shared the below editorial with me – I’m surprised and disappointed there was no Daily News coverage </span><span style='font-family:Wingdings;color:#1F497D'>L</span><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>What on earth is <b>wrong</b> with the UI?! And, that question applies to more than just the reprehensible and anemic response highlighted in the editorial below.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Since Kent Nelson was brought onboard, the UI has become <b>incredibly</b> secretive, particularly with respect to public records requests. Indeed, I’m perfectly comfortable saying that it has added extortion to its bag of shady tricks.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>For those who depend on the Daily News – as I do – and don’t subscribe to the Lewiston Tribune, I found this article that provides more detail about the Williams scandal than does the editorial:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><a href="http://media.spokesman.com/documents/2013/03/2472_001.pdf">http://media.spokesman.com/documents/2013/03/2472_001.pdf</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>Saundra <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:20.25pt;background:white'><b><span lang=EN style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:black'>It's back to the shadows for the UI<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><b><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Posted: Friday, March 8, 2013 12:00 am </span></b><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>University of Idaho administrators act much differently when the spotlight is glaring upon them.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>And the lights were blazingly hot during the summer of 2011, when former UI psychology professor Ernesto Bustamante gunned down graduate student Katy Benoit and subsequently took his own life in a Moscow motel room.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Chastened by criticism that its response to Benoit's appeals for help had been inadequate, UI responded with a mixture of contrition and transparency. Rules governing relationships between faculty and students were tightened. Sexual harassment allegations would be aggressively pursued.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Most vital of all, the public would see for itself how well UI conducted its affairs. In the Bustamante case, that meant UI would join news organizations in seeking release of the late professor's personnel file.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Some of the details that emerged embarrassed UI, such as a student evaluation that reported Bustamante tossed around the idea of killing students while in the classroom. Nonetheless, it telegraphed the institution's commitment to public disclosure.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Now the lights are off.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>What's happened since?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>With the Benoit case still in the courts during 2012, the university had been looking into claims that law professor Alan Fitzgerald Williams sexually harassed at least two female students.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Based upon almost a year of the Tribune's Joel Mills' reporting, Moscow police reports and the university's own acknowledgements, we know College of Law Associate Dean Benjamin Beard accompanied one of the students to the police interview.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>When requested by Carmen Suarez, UI director of Human Rights, Access and Inclusion, police provided her additional security.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Williams was placed on administrative leave during the fall 2012 semester and was about to be terminated when he committed suicide at Gig Harbor, Wash., on Dec. 30, according to the Pierce County Sheriff's Office.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>As far as UI is concerned, that is all you need to know.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Never mind the precedent of 2nd District Judge John Stegner's ruling in opening Bustamante's files. Because Bustamante was deceased, Stegner found he had no right to privacy. The judge then found a compelling public interest in releasing the documents.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>What's different this time? Only the university's rejection of the Lewiston Tribune's request to see Williams' personnel file. In response to the second request - filed after Williams' death - UI said the public interest in releasing the file was "nonexistent."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Never mind a 1996 2nd District Court ruling declaring student evaluations of faculty to be public documents. Says UI, the law school holds itself apart from the rest of the university. But it is merely a graduate school, an extension of the university, not some government entity responsible for licensing lawyers. During the Benoit-Bustamante episode, UI President Duane Nellis was ubiquitous, frequently granting interviews assuring a statewide audience of his intent to remedy the situation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Today, Nellis is nowhere to be found. He's on his way out the door to lead Texas Tech in Lubbock. The voice of UI is lead attorney Kent Nelson.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Outside the glare of statewide publicity, the Williams case still matters. This marks the first time the reforms devised after the Benoit-Bustamante case were tested. How are we to know if the system worked, where it failed and what refinements are needed if the key players insist on hiding behind closed doors?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>What secrets do UI officials want retained within Williams' files and student evaluations?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>And how genuine was this UI commitment to transparency in the first place? In all likelihood, the courts were going to order the university to turn over Bustamante's records. UI could resist, get out of the way or appear to cooperate.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:7.5pt;line-height:18.0pt;background:white'><span lang=EN style='font-size:13.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:black'>Under no such pressure this time, UI has retreated behind its moat of secrecy. In the background, you can hear the faint echo of an unmistakable phrase: "Trust us. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>