Post by Logan on Feb 29, 2016 1:20:48 GMT -6
Emails suggest UW regents decided on new president days before public vote
The chairman of the University of Washington’s Board of Regents and other key officials communicated as if they knew Ana Mari Cauce would be named the university’s president days before the board publicly voted to appoint her last October, emails and other records show.
The records, obtained by The Seattle Times through a state Public Records Act request, bolster suspicions by several open-government advocates’ that regents likely violated the state’s Open Meetings Act by seemingly deciding to appoint Cauce before holding a public vote.
The nearly 1,100 pages of records released this month — the first batch provided to The Times more than four months after the newspaper requested the records — mostly include emails sent to and from UW regents, search-committee officials and other employees involved in planning Cauce’s appointment events.
Various emails sent in the days and hours before the public vote — including those written by Board of Regents Chairman Bill Ayer, search-committee Chairman Kenyon Chan and John Thornburgh, a consultant who coordinated the UW’s presidential search — largely describe the board’s pending action as an “announcement” rather than an uncertain outcome.
Read more: www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/emails-suggest-uw-regents-decided-on-new-president-days-before-public-vote/
The chairman of the University of Washington’s Board of Regents and other key officials communicated as if they knew Ana Mari Cauce would be named the university’s president days before the board publicly voted to appoint her last October, emails and other records show.
The records, obtained by The Seattle Times through a state Public Records Act request, bolster suspicions by several open-government advocates’ that regents likely violated the state’s Open Meetings Act by seemingly deciding to appoint Cauce before holding a public vote.
The nearly 1,100 pages of records released this month — the first batch provided to The Times more than four months after the newspaper requested the records — mostly include emails sent to and from UW regents, search-committee officials and other employees involved in planning Cauce’s appointment events.
Various emails sent in the days and hours before the public vote — including those written by Board of Regents Chairman Bill Ayer, search-committee Chairman Kenyon Chan and John Thornburgh, a consultant who coordinated the UW’s presidential search — largely describe the board’s pending action as an “announcement” rather than an uncertain outcome.
Read more: www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/emails-suggest-uw-regents-decided-on-new-president-days-before-public-vote/