Transparency Update is largely critical of how public agencies handle Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. It has unfortunately been our experience that particular agencies routinely abuse the law, and writing critically about how agency officials handle requests pressures them into producing documents.
Just as it is important to call out officials when they fail to uphold their FOIA duties, Inside Investigator also wants to applaud those who are working diligently to uphold the law. And in the last year, the University of Connecticut (UConn) has gone from being a problematic agency to one we’re able to count on to produce documents in a timely fashion.
Last December, UConn was fined $500 for mishandling a FOIA request submitted by Inside Investigator in 2023. We waited 540 days after submitting a FOIA request for records related to investigations of sexual misconduct allegations to receive responsive records. Those records, when initially produced, came only after we had filed a complaint with the Freedom of Information Commission.
During the proceedings, UConn attorneys attempted to argue that it would be illegal for them to submit records to the FOIC for in camera review. They also argued that investigation summaries were sufficient to fulfill our request, which specifically sought “all records.” The FOIC found they had improperly narrowed the request, improperly made redactions, and violated FOIA’s promptness provision by making us wait so long for records.
Less than a year later, UConn has completely turned it around.
UConn recently turned over documents for a larger request seeking records related to the school’s investigation of allegations of sexual misconduct and subsequent disciplinary actions, similar to those we sought in 2023, within six months. And we’ve received other similar but narrower requests back in shorter time frames, the latest in a week. UConn’s communications department has also been proactive in responding to related questions and providing updates on the status of FOIA requests.
This is a welcome change. FOIA’s effectiveness as a transparency tool is made or broken by the seriousness with which public officials treat it. As journalists, we often rely on agencies we suspect of misconduct or corruption to turn over records that confirm allegations and back up reporting. When agencies don’t comply with requests seeking that kind of evidence, our reporting is delayed, which has a compounding negative impact on the public’s right to know: not only does FOIA become an unworkable tool for the public to discover what their government is doing, but journalists aren’t able to effectively fulfill their role informing the public.
While Partial Record, among the first investigations Inside Investigator wrote about the handling of sexual misconduct at public universities, was long delayed (and did not include any information about UConn) due to the schools’ handling of our FOIA requests, UConn’s prompt response to subsequent FOIA requests has enabled us to quickly follow up on tips and continue our coverage of the issue in a timely manner.
UConn’s improvements in its handling of FOIA requests are also a welcome contrast to continued issues with officials from the Connecticut State Colleges & Universities (CSCU) system.
In December 2025, the FOIC also issued a ruling against CSCU over its handling of an identical 2023 request to the one sent to UConn. As in their ruling against UConn, the FOIC found issues with the length of time it took CSCU to respond and with their redaction of records.
During hearings on the complaint, CSCU said they were working on an updated handbook to help guide their FOIA responses. Almost a year later, and we’re still waiting for it to be released.
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