Voice of San Diego this week published a story regarding a professor at Southwestern College who was allowed to resign after an internal investigation revealed he’d had affairs with students and had a collection of nude photos on his office computer.
The reporter, Katy Stegall, wrote that obtaining information from the college about the investigation evidently took time, patience and legal muscle:
“Obtaining information about Tolli’s resignation from Southwestern took two years.
Southwestern College’s student newspaper, The Sun, filed numerous public records requests seeking investigative documents tied to Tolli, all of which were initially denied by the college. Southwestern officials argued at the time that the documents would not serve a public interest.
The college only reversed course and disclosed the documents after legal intervention by Felix Tinkov, an attorney who represents Voice of San Diego.”
While not having the benefit of the college’s correspondence in front of me, their reported response is troubling.
Undoubtedly an employer must proceed cautiously when dealing with personnel matters and releasing information to the public.
But to make the assertion that documents regarding the behavior of a professor accused of having sexual relations with students does not serve the public interest seems ridiculous.
Understandably there was a reasonable effort to respect and protect both the professor’s and the students’ privacy, especially given that the affairs were consensual. However, once one of the student’s filed a Title IX complaint with the college then the public’s interest in the matter is obvious.
The incident did not take place between two casual acquaintances or an employer and an employee in the private sector. Rather, it occurred in a public institution — a college campus.
That administrators and their legal representatives choosing to drag their feet on providing relevant information to the college newspaper looks like a patronizing attempt to sweep an issue under the rug — as if the decision makers there were waiting for the troublesome student reporters to go away.
Southwestern College President Kindred Murillo is quoted in Stegall’s story as saying, “Given the continued media interest in the matter, we have determined that it is in the college’s best interest to provide it with the hope that the information will be responsibly [handled].”
Seems that when The Sun filed a public records request and followed up for two years, there was continued media interest. But apparently it wasn’t until an outside attorney became involved that Southwestern College come around to agreeing.
As troubling as the initial story about the instructor and his affairs is, it’s of almost equal concern that the college responded to The Sun the way it did.
Good for the journalists who hung on to the story and forced the college to serve the public.
