UPDATE 2/4: CONTINUING COVERAGE ON KILBRIDE’S KNIGHTMARE DATABASE
KnightNews.com got an email from SGA Pres. Mike Kilbride’s PR staff after hours Thursday in response to our question about whether Kilbride would comply with Attorney General Nicholas Gurney’s opinion and restore access to the Knightmare financial database to allow senators to see it — just like they were able to for years, prior to our story exposing his $8,000 luxury retreat on your dime.
It appears a decision regarding whether Kilbride will comply with Gurney’s opinion has not yet been made, based on his PR staff’s response.
“We are going to conduct further research to ensure that ‘all national laws are followed’ as referenced in the opinion sent to you by AG Gurney,” the statement read. “We want to be sure that all student rights are protected by both state and federal law.”
The statement did not explain why that research wasn’t done in August when Kilbride first restricted access.
The law referred to in the statement is likely the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, known as FERPA. Universities are routinely accused of citing this law improperly to justify hiding information that is not really protected by FERPA, according to the Student Press Law Center.
A recent apparent example of FERPA abuse, according to a judge’s ruling, was at the University of Florida, where Student Government just lost a major lawsuit for trying to keep secret video recordings of Senate meetings in the name of FERPA. A judge blasted Student Government’s “education records” classification of videos of Senate meetings as improper, and ordered UF release the public records.
Based on Florida case law, video educational records have enjoyed a higher level of protection under FERPA than financial records. A Florida judge declaring Student Government video records as not having FERPA protection sends a strong message that Student Government financial records would not be protected either. Much of the same information in Knightmare, like names of club presidents, was already published online by UCF for the whole world to see anyway.
KnightNews.com has still not heard back from the two professional staff members we emailed asking if they’d restore the access the Senate enjoyed before Kilbride restricted it just hours after we broke our story on his $8,000 retreat August 2. (Read Kilbride’s emails ordering the restriction, which made no mention of FERPA, and notice the date and time stamp here).
If Kilbride’s SGA determines that it is against FERPA to restore the access to the rest of the Senate — to the level it was at for years until we broke the retreat story — KnightNews.com will launch a major investigation of its own to determine who might be held accountable, based on that possible determination, for what would at that point apparently amount to allowing that law to be broken all those years before Kilbride restricted the access.
KnightNews.com will work to get answers from the Department of Education, Florida Attorney General and UCF administrators to find out why SGA Senators were allowed to access the database for so many years — at a time UCF professional staff knew it was happening — if Kilbride’s administration determines it is against the law to do so and continues blocking out the Senate.
KnightNews.com will continue to follow this story, and let you know if the Senate takes action on its own to force equal access be restored to the SGA Legislative body. KnightNews.com did some research and discovered that the Senate could pass a special act ordering the Activity & Sevice Fee Business Office to restore the access, or perhaps pass a resolution formally requesting it, which could also get action.
A Senator, or any citizen for that matter, could also public records request the database, and sue SGA or file an affidavit requesting prosecution with the local State Attorney’s Office against whomever denies the request on the grounds of FERPA, the former of which was done in the recent UF case. The email public records from Kilbride ordering the restrictions hours after the retreat scandal broke, and Gurney’s opinion indicating that SGA never used to restrict the Senate from seeing the records prior to Kilbride’s declaration, could both be used as evidence in court to show FERPA appears not to be the motivation for the restrictions.
We will also follow up with UCF professional staff to find out whether they will follow Kilbride’s opinion on the matter and in turn defy Attorney General Gurney’s, who is the one charged with interpreting SGA statutes and believes the Senate should see how Kilbride spends his money.
Check back for updates on this major story that impacts who sees how $15 million of your money is spent.
ORIGINAL BREAKING STORY:
KnightNews.com is all over major breaking news coming out of the UCF SGA Office of the Attorney General late Wednesday night.
Attorney General Nicholas Gurney released an opinion requested by Sen. Fernando Gonzales-Portillo regarding whether SGA President Mike Kilbride overstepped his power by hiding his Knightmare Financial Database from Senators.
In his opinion, Gurney wrote that the Senate and Kilbride should have “equal access” to the Knightmare financial database. Gurney recommended the access be restored to the way it was prior to being changed by Kilbride last Summer.
According to Public Records obtained by KnightNews.com, Kilbride stripped access at the same time he faced a firestorm of controversy immediately following KnightNews.com’s investigation of his luxury retreat at a five star resort outside of Disney. WFTV and other media outlets covered the controversy after KnightNews.com first broke the story.
KnightNews.com has just sent an email to the Director of the Activity and Service Fee Business Office and his Technology Supervisor to see if they will immediately restore access to the people who had it prior to our story on the $8,000 retreat.
KnightNews.com also sent an email to Kilbride’s PR staff asking if Kilbride will comply with the opinion, and for any other comment from his office.
We’ll continue following this major breaking news throughout the day here on KnightNews.com. Check back for updates as we continue to gather more information and post the statements from those impacted by this landmark opinion.
