Long wait times for FOIA responses are, unfortunately, common for many public agencies. While public officials frequently point to a large number of requests seeking huge numbers of records, or to staffing shortages, the reasons for delays are often more complicated and can involve agencies’ policies for handling requests.
In December 2025, the FOIC issued two decisions finding that both UConn and CSCU officials had mishandled an identical pair of requests Inside Investigator submitted to the schools seeking documents related to their handling of sexual misconduct investigations.
CSCU officials, in particular, testified that their process for handling requests failed in a number of ways: the request was not entered into GovQA when it should have been, and personnel changes contributed to delays in records being reviewed and turned over, among other issues.
During a hearing on Inside Investigator’s complaint, held in July 2025, CSCU officials testified they were working on rectifying some of these problems by drafting a new handbook outlining how FOIA requests should be handled.
But over a year after that hearing, that handbook has yet to materialize.
Inside Investigator has reached out several times to CSCU to inquire about the status of the new handbook and been told each time that it was likely coming soon. In March 2026, CSCU lawyer Christopher E. Engler told Inside Investigator the draft was “currently being reviewed by senior leadership, with the goal of it being finalized and issued in the near future.”
In June, Engler told Inside Investigator that the handbook was being revised to be “more user friendly with plain language” to “assist the frontline FOI contacts.”
In August, CSCU communications director Samantha Norton told Inside Investigator the document was still being finalized.
“As you know, over the last few months, CSCU has been navigating a leadership transition, which has unfortunately delayed finalizing the handbook.” Norton wrote in an email.
Former CSCU chancellor Terrence Cheng resigned in April 2025 after a state audit flagged questionable spending. Interim chancellor John Maduko then resigned in May 2026 after a sexual harassment complaint was filed against him.
While it’s understandable that upheaval in CSCU’s highest offices might impact certain project deadlines, it’s difficult to understand how the finalization of the handbook would be among them, given CSCU’s own testimony indicates it has been in progress for at least a year and that the project was actively being worked on in June, a month after Maduko resigned. So why, three months after that, is the “leadership transition” suddenly being cited as a reason for the delay?
CSCU’s response is concerning for a couple of reasons. First, the litany of excuses is very similar to those the school cited in its botched handling of our initial FOIA request seeking documents on sexual misconduct. And even if one accepts that the personnel issues that led to our request being mishandled were simply an unfortunate series of events that had no malice behind them, the result was still the same: an unreasonable delay in the release of records that, in turn, delayed public knowledge of how the school handles sexual misconduct investigations.
And Maduko’s resignation implicates sexual misconduct investigations — another reason the school’s delay in releasing the handbook is concerning.
The production of a new handbook is evidence that CSCU officials are taking seriously the issues the FOIC found and rebuked them for in its decision in Inside Investigator’s favor. It is evidence that future requests, submitted by ourselves or others, will not be mishandled in the same way. And that’s especially important as the school faces scrutiny for misconduct at its highest levels.
CSCU’s structure is somewhat more complicated than other public agencies that handle FOIA requests — requests involving multiple campuses are handled by the central Board of Regents (BOR) rather than the campuses. That has not always necessarily been clear to the public — and the consolidation of our request to the BOR fell through the cracks, leading to a delay in its processing.
That CSCU is improving this process is important, not just for our request but for others as well. FOIA logs that Inside Investigator has obtained indicate requests the school receives that involve the BOR rather than individual campuses take longer to process.
Connecticut’s Superior Court has ruled that public agencies should consider their responsibilities under FOIA a primary duty, equivalent to other statutory duties. That’s not only a reason FOIA requests shouldn’t fall to the wayside as the school negotiates other challenges, but also a reason that policies and procedures governing how FOIA requests are handled are given appropriate attention, even in the face of other pressures.
If public agency officials can’t organize themselves enough to publish updated guidelines for handling FOIA requests within the course of a year, can they be trusted to respond to requests, particularly those that require coordination between multiple departments, in a reasonable period of time?
Public records belong to the public and the public interest in them is obvious. Likewise, the background processes that determine how those records are handled, and which involve the expenditure of public resources, are a matter of public interest.
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