During the course of the investigation, UNC officials uncovered additional academic misconduct.
All told, 14 players have missed at least one game this season because of information uncovered during the investigations.
The lawsuit seeks the release of the following records:
-ll internal records related to UNC’s investigation;
-Names of individuals who provided benefits to players;
-Un-redacted phone records for University phones issued to Baddour, Davis and former associate coach John Blake;
-UNC parking tickets issued to 11 football players;
-Names and employment information for tutors and mentors;
-Names of student-athletes who received scholarships.
The plaintiffs believe UNC is improperly withholding records to avoid releasing potentially embarrassing information.
UNC says it is bound by FERPA and believes the documents are part of the student-athletes’ educational records. Officials have also said they are slowed down by the number of requests, more than 80 so far.
The University has one public records officer, Regina Stabile, processing requests. She has put in at least 600 hours in the last three-and-a-half months just dealing with football-related requests, UNC said.
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Thursday’s statement said Thorp has authorized UNC to hire additional staff to help process the requests. It’s unclear when he gave this OK and whether those individuals have been hired yet.
UNC has released redacted copies of some of the records in question. Phone records for Baddour, Blake and Davis were released, but almost all phone numbers were removed. NCAA interview schedules were provided, but student-athletes and staff who were interviewed were redacted.
Last week, the University provided records identifying three people who gave illegal benefits to players, but almost entire pages were redacted at points. Thursday, another individual was named in public records as providing illegal benefits.
In a telephone interview, Baddour said the University has done its best to comply with requests.
“I share Holden’s disappointment because I know that the University has been working very hard to be responsive to the hundreds of requests that have come in, and I feel like we have been responsive, so I was disappointed to learn of it,” he said.
Legal basis and precedents
The basic legal question the lawsuit raises is whether the records in question are protected by FERPA. If they are not, they are subject to N.C.’s public records law, which makes most, but not all, records public.
UNC steadfastly contends FERPA applies to the requested records.
“The University is entrusted with lots of confidential information about our students,” said Leslie Strohm, the University’s vice chancellor and general counsel.
“They and their families expect us to hold that information in confidence because it’s required by federal law and because it’s the right thing to do. A football player has the same basic privacy rights as any student on campus.”
Enacted in 1974, FERPA was intended to protect strictly educational information. Public records advocates have said that universities have cited it more and more in recent years as an excuse for denying open records requests of all sorts.
FERPA allows schools to “disclose, without consent, ‘directory information’ such as a student’s name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and awards, and dates of attendance.”
Amanda Martin, one of three attorneys for the plaintiffs and a lawyer for the DTH since 1995, said there have been several recent national cases where judges ruled that educational records don’t include every single thing associated with a given student, only certain things like grades.
Martin was also the lead attorney when the DTH sued UNC in 1996 over the Honor Court’s proceedings. The result established the court as a public body that must comply with N.C. open meetings law.
That lawsuit was appealed to the N.C. Supreme Court and is the only other time the DTH has sued UNC since becoming independent.
The DTH is a nonprofit that relies solely on advertising to support its mission. It receives no funding from the University, and paid rent while its offices were on campus.
The lawsuit involving the Honor Court took almost two years. Martin said there’s no telling how long this case will take.
A similar lawsuit in Florida came to an end July 31 when the NCAA and Florida State University were ordered to turn over records related to a football investigation regarding student tutors and to pay a combined $325,000 in legal costs to more than 20 plaintiffs. FSU paid $65,000 of that total.
The DTH’s lawsuit also seeks repayment of legal fees, which N.C. law allows in open records cases.
If the plaintiffs win the case and are awarded the fees, the University will foot the bill at the cost to N.C. taxpayers.
Frier said the lawsuit was a last resort to force the University to follow records laws, which the plaintiffs believe are vital to ensuring accountability.
“It is only through a transparent process that the public can come to an informed opinion about whether the public agency is acting properly,” Martin said.
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.
