North Carolina’s public universities are just that: public agencies. That means much of their business—and that of their employees—is public information, subject to disclosure under state law to anyone who asks for it.
Reporters rely on public records to get a peek behind the curtain. Email and text message records can show how campus officials arrived at a controversial decision. Invoices and contracts can show how much money schools are paying to external consultants and vendors. And calendar records can show how leaders spend their time and with whom they meet.
But there’s no telling how long it can take to get that information. State law only requires that agencies provide the records “as promptly as possible.” At least one UNC System campus warns everyone who files a request that it could take a full year.
“The university makes every effort to provide records as promptly as possible, but staff is limited and is currently managing a large number of complex requests,” reads an automatic reply in the online portal used to ask for records from NC State University. “Please be advised that many records requests are taking three to twelve months to fulfill.”
In honor of Sunshine Week—an annual, national event promoting open government and transparency organized by the Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida—The Assembly decided to see how long it would take to receive a single, simple record from each of the state’s 16 public universities, plus the UNC System office and the N.C. School of Science and Mathematics, the residential high school that is part of the system.
On March 5, we sent a request to each school asking for their chancellor’s calendar or schedule from March 3, the day of North Carolina’s primary election.
At the time of publication, two weeks later, every school had fulfilled the requests. Ten did so in about a day, while others took between two and nine business days.
The School of Science and Math was the first to respond, roughly 90 minutes after we sent the request by email. Chancellor Todd Roberts’ schedule showed he had a full day of meetings and other events from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Like Roberts, most chancellors had plenty of meetings. That includes Brian Cole of the UNC School of the Arts, which responded after about 3 hours and 30 minutes; Philip Rogers of East Carolina University, which responded on March 6; Robin Cummings of UNC Pembroke, which responded on March 13; and Darrell Allison of Fayetteville State University and James Martin of N.C. A&T State University, both of which responded March 18. N.C. A&T spokesperson Todd Simmons noted the record “had been pulled” for a few days but the response “fell through the cracks” due to the staffer overseeing the request leaving the university.
Some leaders’ schedules included time with high-profile figures.
Perhaps no one had a more exciting day than UNC Greensboro Chancellor Frank Gilliam, who judged a campus cooking competition with Food Network personality Aarti Sequeira. The pair also filmed an episode of Gilliam’s “Just SayinG” interview series, per Gilliam’s calendar, which the university provided on March 6. Meanwhile, UNC System President Peter Hans met with state Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley, per his calendar, which the system office also sent on March 6.
And UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Lee Roberts’ calendar showed a block of time set aside for former basketball coach Roy Williams, a notable meeting given the ongoing debate over the future of the university’s basketball arena and Williams’ vocal opposition to moving the Tar Heels out of the Dean E. Smith Center. UNC-CH fulfilled the request on March 10.
In other athletics-related appointments, Lee Roberts and Chancellor Kevin Howell of NC State—which responded on March 13, well under a year—were scheduled to attend the Atlantic Coast Conference Board of Directors meetings. UNC Charlotte Chancellor Sharon Gaber was set to attend her school’s women’s basketball game, per her calendar, which the university provided on March 6. And UNC-CH’s chancellor and UNC Wilmington Chancellor Aswani Volety attended the men’s basketball game between the Tar Heels and Clemson together, per Volety’s calendar, also provided on March 6.
They weren’t the only chancellors to spend time together on March 3. Calendars for UNC Asheville Chancellor Kimberly van Noort (fulfilled March 6), Western Carolina University Chancellor Kelli Brown (March 6), Appalachian State University Chancellor Heather Norris (March 9), and Winston-Salem State University Chancellor Bonita Brown (March 17, but more on this below) show they were invited to join N.C. Central University Chancellor Karrie Dixon to record an episode of her “Eagle Exchange” podcast.
NCCU provided Dixon’s calendar on March 18 after The Assembly asked for an update on the request. Chief Brand Officer Stephen Fusi said the university typically processes requests as they are received but he intervened to get The Assembly’s request fulfilled sooner. He noted more complex requests are likely to take “a much longer time.”
Elizabeth City State University’s Keith Hargrove was the only chancellor to block off time to vote on March 3. His calendar, which the university provided on March 18, shows Hargrove participated in a march to the polls to end his day. The state’s online voter search shows some of the other chancellors voted early.
Our test also showed that sometimes a lack of response is due to an error on the part of the person making the request. The Assembly followed up with every school that hadn’t responded by this week to give them a chance to explain. When we contacted Winston-Salem State, we learned that we used an incorrect online form to make the request with that campus. While the form accepted our request, WSSU general counsel Ivey Brown told us he did not have a record of it and pointed us to the correct form. After figuring out our error, the university began processing our request on March 16 and sent us the chancellor’s schedule the next day.
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