The University of New Mexico Foundation continues to hide public information from a sports journalist, even though the courts have already told it to hand over the information.
So now, Daniel Libit is suing for the third time.
Libit covers sports business for Sportico. The New York Times has even called him a “scold” to the Albuquerque university. “Don’t make me sue you for public records,” he warned on X. He’s already won several court cases confirming the foundation is an essentially public entity, subject to the state’s open records law. But the UNM Foundation, which works closely with the public university to raise money, refuses to acknowledge it is subject to the state’s Inspection of Public Records Act.
Acknowledging the reality that it is a public entity is a problem for the foundation, which “has previously advertised” to prospective donors that donations “were not subject to public disclosure,” according to Libit’s latest suit. He filed it on March 29 in Bernalillo County. He wants to know how the foundation pays university employees, what its naming rights agreement for its basketball arena is, and how much it has spent on legal fees defending itself against Libit.
“The University of New Mexico Foundation is demonstrating how strong the allure of secrecy is for public universities and their direct-support creatures,” the journalist told me via email. “While the nothing-to-hide argument may not always apply, I think it does here. And by extension, if an organization spends seven years fighting a losing court battle to conceal their records, loses that battle, but continues to conceal its records, it invites the public’s deepest and darkest suspicion.”
Foundations are a favorite tool of universities to shield records from the public. Purdue University’s foundation was used to conceal the details of a plan to pay people to live on campus. Other universities have not been so fortunate — Kentucky State University lost a lawsuit for withholding records from a local newspaper about the money spent on the president’s birthday party. College of DuPage in Illinois also lost a lawsuit and had to turn over spending about its president’s lavish spending.
Libit is fighting a similar issue against the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s foundation. And he should absolutely win both. UNM Foundation is clearly an extension, or as Libit calls it, a “creature” of the university. The university president is a trustee for the foundation, and “one-quarter of the Foundation’s Board of Trustees are employees, officers, or Regents of the University of New Mexico,” according to the latest lawsuit.
The foundation operates as a contractor for UNM, handling its endowment at the direction of the university. It also works at the direction of UNM. And while the average citizen would be hit with a trademark lawsuit faster than you can say “Go Lobos” if he tried to sell UNM merchandise, the foundation has no such concerns.
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It’s been “granted a free license to use the University of New Mexico’s name, intellectual property, and other trademarks for its fundraising activities,” the lawsuit says. The foundation operates under the direction of university leadership and functions only for the purpose of advancing the school. It also sits on university property.
It may not be a fan of transparency, but everyone can see right through its scheme. A judge should, too.