Students, faculty and staff walk past the College Green. Geneseo recently scored the lowest out of 10 schools on a report grading transparency by legal standards (Josie Kwan/ Assoc. photo editor).
In a recent report assessing the transparency of 10 public colleges and universities in Western New York, Geneseo came in last along with Genesee Community College, scoring zero out of 100 points.
The report was conducted by a nonprofit watch-dog organization called The Buffalo Niagara Coalition for Open Government and evaluated schools based on their compliance with New York state’s Open Meeting Law.
For Geneseo, the BNCOG assessed whether the College Council, a regulatory and advisory committee made up of state appointees and one student representative complied with Open Meeting Law.
The College Council meets twice a semester with college administrators and is tasked with recommending presidential candidates to the SUNY Board of Trustees for their approval as well as making regulations regarding campus facilities or student conduct, according to the SUNY website.
Chief Communications and Marketing Officer Gail Glover said the college did not give any credence to the report. When pushed for further response or clarification as to their area of contention, the college declined to say anything more.
“We are aware of the report and disagree with its findings,” Glover said. “We will take the opportunity to review our procedures to make sure that we remain in compliance with the law.”
The Coalition based their score on whether meeting agendas, meeting minutes and video recordings of the colleges’ major regulatory public body were posted online for a duration of at least five years.
“There is no reason why meeting agendas and minutes cannot be posted online,” the report said in its conclusion. “The public should be able to access the documents that their elected officials are discussing and voting on.”
All of the 10 schools observed for this report received failing grades; SUNY Buffalo scored the highest, with a 64 out of 100. When the coalition put together the report, they said the lack of minutes or guidelines made it impossible for them to know whether the public is allowed to speak at meetings or if the College Council held private “executive sessions.” The coalition therefore gave failing grades for these areas of analysis.
Geneseo also received a zero because the coalition did not provide minutes, agendas or video recordings of meetings. Although Geneseo does not seem to publicly provide minutes or agendas for College Council meetings, the coalition was incorrect in saying that the College Council provided no recordings of meetings.
A recording of the most recent college council meeting can be found on the Geneseo website under the president’s page and college council section. The Lamron, however, could not find recordings of any meetings from the last five years.
BNCOG president Paul Wolf said that, although the coalition did not see this recording when they did their search, if they had, it likely would not have changed Geneseo’s score more than a point or two.
Psychology major freshman Allison Mattheus expressed her feelings about the college’s comment.
“The comment [made by Glover] was not reassuring at all, especially for the student body,” Mattheus said. “I feel that transparency needs to be something that is very focused on and prominent.”
According to the college council website, meetings occur twice a semester and are recorded due to an executive order. Their website also mentions that these meetings are live streamed for the public to see.
Student Association President Corey Wilkinson felt that the report didn’t represent Geneseo’s transparency status.
“I think it’s inaccurate. I think that [the coalition] had good intentions, just what they were reporting on just wasn’t entirely true,” Wilkinson said. “I definitely feel there is always room to grow and we need to figure out the best way to be transparent.”
Specifically, Wilkinson said he thought that the SUNY Board of Trustees would be the proper governing body for Geneseo, since much of what the College Council does is more minor, such as naming buildings.
Wolf said that the College Council would likely be subject to Open Meeting Law, as a body with governmental authority.
“Any public body that meets is subject to the open meetings law,” Wolf said in a phone interview. “It does not apply to a private school, but a public school is subject to the Open Meetings Law.”