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49 J.L. & Educ. 1 (2020)

handle is hein.journals/jle49 and id is 1 raw text is: Academic Research Transparency and the Importance of Being Earnest David W. Schnare* I. ABSTRACT Public universities and their research faculty have become important participants in governmental regulatory policy making. The public often chaffs from such regulatory controls and demands that the scientific foundations of such policies be open to public examination. In the absence of quantitative information on the volume and nature of such requests, an analysis was conducted, documenting that on average Category I & II public research universities receive one records request every day. These requests, however, only rarely request records associated with academic research. The mean probability of a public university research academic receiving a record request is 0.00062, or one request every 1,600 years. However, when the request lands on a faculty member's desk, it can impose significant work that takes time away from academic pursuits and raises complaints of harassment. Nevertheless, such requests can disclose important information not otherwise available to the public or the greater research community. Faculty who have been asked to divulge their work have claimed a scholar's privilege which would exempt them from any form of public inspection of their work. Examination of state protections and jurisprudence on academic freedom demonstrate the complete absence of a scholar's privilege or any * Dr. Schnare, Esq. is the emeritus Director of the Free Market Environmental Law Clinic, a thirty-five-year veteran of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, emeritus Chairman of the Energy & Environment Legal Institute and a former Adjunct Professor at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School. Conflict of interest statement: Dr. Schnare was the lead counsel in the matters of E&E Legal v. Arizona Board of Regents and American Tradition Institute v. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia. He also served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the plaintiff organization. 1