Big Ten, Covid, Schlissel, and FOIA
There's an interesting story in the Washington Post about the Big Ten's return to school and football and the way that University leadership groups tried to avoid public scrutiny.
From the story:
Not long after [Wisconsin Chancellor Rebecca] Blank shared her concerns with her colleagues, Schlissel wrote in an individual message to Blank: “becky, if you simply delete emails after sending, does that relieve you of FOIA obligations? I share your concern of course.”
No, Mark, you can't delete emails after sending to get around FOIA. How stupid is the man? (I am a faculty member at a public university and all faculty leadership get extensive training in this). It reminds me of the Brandon debacle.
It's one thing for an Athletic Director to do what Brandon did. It's another when you are the President of one of the absolute elite public university in the country.
If true and not sarcasm this is embarrassing.
Oh God. That is a bad thing to think let alone document it in an email. Yikes.
would you look who is quick to jump on a mistake by a species further up the food chain?
jealousy is such an ugly emotion.
:-) FOIA, so simple even a chimp can do it.
i vote for our favorite chimp to take over as president of U of M. and FOIA compliance officer, too.
Thank you. I'd crack some heads; that's certain.
Actually I'm probably banned from the Prez job. A friend of mine and I stole flowers from the front yard of this house in 1979...
nah, you're good. the statute of limitations is long-since passed. besides, i do criminal defense work, even for chimps.
murder is the crime that they gave me....
Cousin Sarah. Bad seed, that one.
Someone get this chimp a firearm safety course stat!
Quite a few leaders of our society have not covered themselves in glory over the past 12 months.
It boggles the mind. How could Schlissel think deleting emails allows you to dodge a FOIA request? Truly bizarre.
Why? Didn't Urban Meyer delete a bunch of old text messages when he was at OSU, prior to handing in his phone, to avoid NCAA investigators?
We're talking about Schlissel here. Sorry, but I expect more from Schlissel than I do that other guy.
Yes but there are rules that apply to everyone else and none of those apply to OSU.
Also, NCAA investigations have no teeth at all. They have to politely ask an institution to incriminate itself and report they found "no evidence of a violation" when the institution shockingly declines.
And, if you thought it might, but weren't sure, e-mailing a question about FOIA that might also be subject to FOIA making it obvious you had an interest in avoiding it...
Can only hope that was bad sarcasm. It was an "individual message" after all.
Hah. Good point. Sarcasm doesn't do well in print all by itself and out of context. Who knows for sure but it could be sarcasm.
It seems 100% sarcastic to me. If he honestly didn't know the answer to that question, Iu think he would find someone at UM to ask. No way he made it to be in his position being that dumb.
If you read the exchange from the article it does not seem sarcastic:
“Not long after Blank shared her concerns with her colleagues, Schlissel wrote in an individual message to Blank: “becky, if you simply delete emails after sending, does that relieve you of FOIA obligations? I share your concern of course.” There is no indication that Schlissel or Blank have deleted emails to evade public records laws. Blank told Schlissel that her deleted emails are subject to disclosure through the Freedom of Information Act and she would be violating state law if she permanently deleted them. Schlissel, who has been Michigan’s president since 2014, responded: “that’s really interesting and difficult. Thanks for explaining.””
Even if it is sarcastic, it is an incredibly stupid thing to say in an e-mail that is in itself subject to FOIA.
Yikes! Wow!
It seems 100% sarcastic to me. If he honestly didn't know the answer to that question, Iu think he would find someone at UM to ask. No way he made it to be in his position being that dumb.
That’s just . . . wow. It’s one thing to not understand what FOIA requires (even though that’s pretty sad for the president of one of the country’s great public universities), but to put your intent to avoid it, in writing no less, is beyond idiotic. I guess people really are just in charge of things for no good reason after all.
Hold on though! What if you delete the email where you ask if deleting emails relieves FOIA obligations? Off scot-free then, right?
4d chess. Foolproof
Infinity-D chess. Even Einstein couldn't calculate the number of D's involved in this type of chess.
Oh shit. Starting to think I need to delete this message board thread.
"people really are just in charge of things for no good reason after all."
I've come to understand this completely over the past decade. The closer I got to upper leadership, the more clueless about every day things in the organization people seemed to be - like common sense and common knowledge stuff. Luckily (?) for me I never got any further up the food chain.
It doesn't help much that there seems to be a network that, if things don't go well, allows them to just bury it, take their golden parachute, and 'Dave Brandon' their way through corporate life.
Also, use a damn phone or ask in person. Email is like leaving clay tablets.
The Schlissel comment does not ring true, in my opinion. UM has an FOIA department and he would have no concern contacting it. There is also a published written policy.
Please let me know if I am misunderstanding your comment, but what doesn't "ring true?" The man wrote it himself.
I agree if what is written in the article is true, Schlissel is a dolt. When you have a University Department and staff available for consultation, you should use them. It is not logical that he wouldn't have used his resources.
The article explains that the e-mails were obtained via FOIA why would you doubt they are real?
I'm hoping you are correct. I'd like to think it was sarcasm and the sentence taken out of context.
Then again, maybe smart people are just that stupid.
He clearly forgot the /s...
Ring True?, he typed it , then sent it.
Problem?
Probably not different from what 90% of the other university presidents would do/say, but this guy really just keeps showing his bare ass.
Bringing students back amid COVID to earn your $ only to say Actually, its not safe here, handling the Dr. Anderson fiasco, AND then imagining the proper course is to say "how can I cover more stuff up" is galaxy brain.
I agree with your 1st paragraph - many University Presidents act this way.
Overall, it's not a Schlissel thing. It's a "leaders within American higher education" thing.
Just another example of an incredibly "book smart" person with zero common sense
oh
my
god
becky
...look at my e-mails. They look like information that a public official should be accountable for.
I dont know if you intended it but that whole thing raps pretty well...I couldn't not read it as such.
One of the best pieces of advice I got in my first "real" job was "there are things you do not ever put in an email."
This is one of those. Honestly, if he's this clueless, he should be sacked.
Yep. And, have a 2 minute delay on outbound emails. Just one extra layer of protection
I have been totally unimpressed with Schlissle’s leadership. Think it’s time give Collins the interim title and hire a search firm
I wonder how many emails he has sent and then gone and deleted as he suggested to her. It would be interesting to look at that, wouldn’t it?
Schlissel seems not cut out for this job
The school really needs to axe him. He’s proven (both before and during the past year) that he’s just not the right guy to lead a large university.
The comment by Mark was stupid, but, as someone who has been subject of FOIA, I sympathize with him. FOIA prevents people from brainstorming and thinking outside the box. This is particularly true when a totally new situation arises where no one has had any experience dealing with, and people tend to discuss all kinds of crazy ideas.