University of Central Florida SGA Senator Jacob Milich has not given up on fighting for transparency in student government after UCF lawyers objected to his request to file a court brief in which he asks the court to make clear that SGA records are not protected by FERPA.
The friend of the court brief comes after Milich’s resolution to make SGA more transparent was shut down by the the speaker of the senate behind closed doors.
“[The] Court’s current opinion casts confusion and doubt on the legality of SGA’s entire internal open government framework,” the brief states.
The brief also makes a note that if SGA records are interpreted to be FERPA educational records, then SGA and its senators have violated FERPA through open meetings and open government policies.
The original resolution is in response to the Knight News vs. UCF lawsuit, where the court affirmed rulings finding names of SGA officers spending a nearly $20 million budget, or who are accused of improper spending, can be protected by FERPA.
“The fact that SGA pays tens of thousands of dollars to the same law firm that opposed student senators from having a voice in this court case is deeply disappointing to me. If this conflict of interest is not against the rules of the Florida Bar it should be,” Milich said in a media statement.
Milich also continued to say that “[as] a UCF student and elected student government senator, I consider open student government to be non-negotiable. I will continue to fight to ensure that the students have the right to see how SGA is spending nearly $20 million of their money.”
Although UCF opposed his brief, Milich said he would continue to weigh all legal options in this case, including the possibility of having the brief heard by the Florida Supreme Court.
Editor’s note: The Knight News lawsuit against UCF has spanned three years. Knight News won a major victory at trial – a judge ruled UCF staff broke the law by referring Knight News to another UCF office to get a record in the custody of the person that Knight News requested it from. UCF did not appeal this clear order. The other issues on the lawsuit, including whether SGA records are “education records” under FERPA, are still on appeal by Knight News.
