How many times did Kentucky universities break open records law in 2025?
Kentucky universities violated or partially violated the state’s open records law 14 times in 2025, data from the attorney general’s office shows.
In total, 24 appeals related to records from a public college or university were filed this year. With 14 violations this year, universities were found to have violated or partially violated the open records law on appeal about 58% of the time, as of December 18. Of those, 18 appeals filed were related to records requests made of the University of Kentucky, the state’s largest university.
The Kentucky Open Records and Open Meetings Acts protects the right of citizens to be informed of what decisions public institutions make, like state or local governments and public schools and universities. Meeting agendas, emails, staff memos, budget reports or contracts with the university are open records and can be inspected by the public.
When a public institution denies a records request, an appeal to the attorney general can be filed to see if the institution is in compliance with the law.
Attorney General Russell Coleman’s office ruled that UK has seven violations and five partial violations of the open records law this year. On five other appeals, Coleman ruled that UK had not violated the law. In one appeal, the attorney general’s office could not make a ruling based on the original request filed to an incorrect email address.
The other appeals filed in 2025 were:
- Four involving the University of Louisville — 1 partial violation and 3 instances where the university did not violate the law.
- One involving Northern Kentucky University — The university was found to have violated the law.
- One involving the Kentucky Community and Technical College System — The college was found to have not violated the law.
The Kentucky Open Records and Open Meetings acts protect the public’s right to obtain records maintained by state and local government agencies, including institutions that receive at least 25% of their funds from the government.
That includes public universities, and includes having access to meetings held by and documents used by those groups.
Ten additional appeals involving universities were ruled on between September and December, the date of the Herald-Leader’s previous reporting on open records appeals. All but one were filed against UK, who was found to have violated the law three times in that time period and did not violate the law in another three appeals.
The tenth appeal was filed involving the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, which was found to have not violated the law when it did not respond to an open records request that was filtered out by an email spam filter.
Amye Bensenhaver, co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition and former assistant attorney general, said there has been a rise in universities trying to subvert the open records law in recent years.
“If there is a group of public officials who should understand and appreciate the value of information and education, one would think it would be universities, and what we find in Kentucky is quite the contrary,” Bensehaver said.
Universities have access to resources — including financial and staff — that other organizations in the state do not, yet schools are often the ones attempting to delay the release of records or denying records requests, she said. That response is “really disturbing,” she said.
Citing lawsuits with the University of Kentucky and Western Kentucky University, where the schools sued the student newspapers instead of releasing records related to employees accused of sexual harassment, Bensenhaver said attempting to hide records can damage the universities’ reputations much more than the content of the records.
“They should be a more enlightened community about the value of the free exchange of information, and we’re seeing them defy at every opportunity, and in cases where you’re just sort of struggling to understand what their objections are to disclose your public records,” Bensenhaver said. “We’re seeing them just circling the wagons and usually making the situation worse for themselves.”
Kentucky Lantern sues UK for records related to university senate
The appeal filed involving Northern Kentucky University found that the school violated the open records act when it did not respond within five business days as the law requires. The school also required the request to be resubmitted through a specific form, which “subverted the Act,” according to the ruling from Coleman’s office.
In one appeal, Coleman ruled that UK did not violate the open records law when it came to an appeal filed by news outlet The Kentucky Lantern. The Lantern had requested records related to the disbanding of the university senate, specifically emails involving and mentioning the former senate chair Deshana Collett, who has since left the university.
Collett and UK signed a $375,000 separation agreement, which required Collett to withdraw a records request asking for emails between UK administrators that mentioned her by name.
The Lantern filed the same request, and UK denied it, saying records involve were considered preliminary and protected by attorney-client privilege, according to the news outlet’s appeal.
Earlier this month, the Lantern filed a lawsuit challenging Coleman’s decision in Fayette Circuit Court. Under open records law, decisions from the attorney general can be appealed in a local circuit court.
“This Case calls upon Kentucky’s courts to yet again tell its largest state university that the Open Records Act means what it says: disclosure is in the public interest, and the law’s exemptions must be narrowly construed,” the complaint says.