Yesterday, the Lane County District Attorney’s office affirmed the University of Oregon’s responses to news outlets’ demands for confidential student records, and denied the appeals for those records that were filed by the Register-Guard, Oregonian and KATU. The news outlets sought confidential records related to sexual assault allegations.

District Attorney Alex Gardner and Chief Deputy District Attorney Patricia Perlow concluded that the UO appropriately complied with its duties under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) when it denied the news outlets access to confidential information by redacting that information from the requested records.

“The University of Oregon and its public records office have a strong interest in transparency, but we also take our duty to protect confidential student records very seriously,” said Dave Hubin, who oversees the public records office. “We do our best to balance the competing interests in privacy and transparency, and we appreciate and respect the District Attorney’s Office’s diligence in resolving these difficult matters.”

For more information about the UO’s approach to public records, a recent story details the process and exemptions allowable by law.

-- By Julie Brown, Public Affairs Communication