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Public Universities, the Private Corporations They Create and Sunshine Law

T. W. Hair

Florida’s public universities have a history of creating foundations. They have names like the Florida Gulf Coast University Foundation or the Florida State University Research Foundation. But these foundations are actually private corporations. And the links between these corporations, which oversee a number of university-related functions from managing athletics departments to constructing housing, and their public universities is murky.

The Florida Supreme Court is currently moving forward with a case that seeks to establish whether or not these private corporations are truly extensions of the university.

This fall, Associated Press Correspondent Mike Schneider wrote an article called “Colleges duck public records law via corporations,” which not only explored the relationship between public universities and their private corporations, but also asked 30 of Florida’s biggest university corporations for lists of staff salaries, donors and contracts under Florida’s Sunshine Law. The results were mixed.

We discusses the relationship between universities and these corporations, and what a ruling from the Florida Supreme Court might mean for them.Guest:

Mike Schneider, Associated Press Correspondent

Topher is a reporter at WGCU News.