Academic Freedom Crisis Toolkit: Public Record Requests

As a state university, the University of Massachusetts Amherst must respond to public record requests. In the case of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the University must respond to the requestor within 10 business days with details on the forthcoming records response. Within that 10-day period the faculty member must give the FOIA Office an estimate of how many records and of what type, how long the search will take, etc. The FOIA Office will then respond to the requestor with an agreement to provide the records and fee estimate, where applicable, or deny access to records.  

Requestable records can include email, texts, files, etc. including from non-UMass accounts or devices. What matters is not the medium but whether the content relates to UMass work. All communication carried out on UMass email is considered UMass work and can be FOIA’ed. 

Contact Christine Wilda, Associate Chancellor for Compliance (@email; 413 545 2148). 

See Appendix 2 on the Academic Freedom Crisis Toolkit main page for more details.