BUSINESS
AND FINANCIAL AFFAIRS
Information Access and Disclosure
Sec. 720-10: Information from Public Records (California Public Records Act) -
Guidelines
Responsible
Office: Office of Institutional Research
Revised: July 2005
The California Public Records Act
declares that access to
information concerning the conduct of the people's business is a
fundamental and necessary right of every person in this State, that
public records are open to inspection at all times during regular
office hours, and are subject to inspection and copying by every
person except as provided in the Act.
A. Access to Public Records
1. Review of Information
Prior to release of public information, the material must be reviewed carefully
to make certain it does not contain any information about a particular individual
that could be defined as "personal information" under the State of California
Information Practices Act
of 1977 (IPA).
The Information Practices Coordinator at (949) 824-7151 should be consulted
when determining whether or not material should be released.
2. Disclosure of Portions of Records
Any reasonably segregatable portion of a record shall be provided
to any person requesting such record after deletion of the portions which
are exempt by law.
3. Disclosure of Exempt Records to a Federal Agency
Before the disclosure of an otherwise exempt University record
(see RMP-8,
VI, C) is made to a federal agency, the federal agency shall agree in
writing to comply with the provisions of the California Public Records Act.
This section does not apply to disclosure made pursuant to the
Information Practices Act of 1977 (see Section 720-11),
or made through other legal proceedings including discovery proceedings.
B. Requests for Records
A request for a record should be in writing and specific enough
to identify the record.
If a record does not exist containing the information
requested, the University is not required to create such a
record.
Records maintained by the University are property of The
Regents (i.e., not of the employee who creates the record).
A University employee may not use University records for
purposes other than those that are relevant and necessary to
the performance of his/her official duties. This includes
records generated by the employee in his/her capacity as an
employee or agent of the University. Any other use of such
records must be requested pursuant to this policy by the
employee acting in his/her capacity as a member of the
public.
C. Public Records Act Requests
Public records act requests should be directed immediately to the
Office of Institutional Research (OIR) by phone (949) 824-7151, fax (949) 824-4350,
or e-mail: pra@uci.edu. If the request concerns student records, then the Registrar
and Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) designate should
be contacted by phone (949) 824-7982 or fax (949) 824-7896.
The California
Public Records Act provides that a fee may be charged to cover the direct
costs incurred in making copies of records or information requested. A fee
of ten cents per page will be charged for photocopies. This fee may be waived
by the University for requests totaling less than 50 pages per Public Records
Act request.
D. Media Requests
If a public records request originated from the media, the Office of Institutional
Research will coordinate the response with the Communications Office.
E. Denial of Request for Records
Any notification of denial of any request for records shall
set forth the names and titles or positions of each person
responsible for the denial.