Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo student settles lawsuit against university

November 1, 2024

By KAREN VELIE

Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo recently reached a settlement with a student who sued the university for failing to abide by the California Public Record’s Act.

Elizabeth Wilson, a student journalist at Cal Poly, filed three public records requests in fall 2022 while researching stories on campus sexual assault, labor violations alleged by Cal Poly student employees, and a former top Cal State administrator’s failure to respond to sexual harassment and other complaints. She did not receive the records.

The First Amendment Coalition represented Wilson in a lawsuit against Cal Poly for multiple violations of the California Public Records Act; violations the coalition warned the university about in June 2023.

“I’m so pleased Cal Poly has agreed to a settlement, but it shouldn’t have required a lawsuit to assert my — and the Cal Poly community’s — right to this information,” Wilson said. “Access to records isn’t just important to journalists like myself, it’s important to anyone who seeks to hold institutions accountable.”

In July, 2024, Cal Poly finally released 236 emails in response to the three records requests Wilson originally submitted. Only 21 emails were withheld as exempt from disclosure.

Today’s settlement also stipulates that within three months, the university will convene a training session for all staff who process Public Records Act requests for the Cal Poly campus that informs them of their obligations under the act. The training will be recorded and publicly posted.

The settlement also gives Mustang News reporters the opportunity to meet with Cal Poly’s records staff in person, every academic term over the next three years, to discuss the status of their open requests, the criteria and process staff uses to queue requests for processing, and suggestions for overcoming any practical basis for delaying or denying access to records.

“Access to public records is the people’s constitutional right,” said Annie Cappetta, legal fellow at First Amendment Coalition. “It’s not a favor that officials can facilitate when it’s convenient for them and ignore when it’s not. This settlement will remind Cal Poly staff of their duties to the public and ensure that they come to the table to improve their process with students.”