BOULDER – A Colorado newspaper said it has filed a lawsuit seeking the names of finalists in the University of Colorado’s search for a new president of the system.
The Boulder Daily Camera filed a lawsuit in Denver District Court Monday, the newspaper reported .
Mark Kennedy was approved May 2 as the replacement for retiring President Bruce Benson in a 5-4 vote by the university’s Board of Regents.
Kennedy is a former president of the University of North Dakota and the only candidate who was publicly identified by the University of Colorado.
The newspaper’s lawsuit seeks to compel the university to publicize the identities of five other candidates interviewed by regents.
A university spokesman did not immediately return a call by The Associated Press seeking comment.
The university refused two separate requests in May and July under the Colorado Open Records Act asking for finalists’ names, the newspaper reported.
“The public has the right to know the names of the other five finalists interviewed by the regents as outlined in the CORA statute,” said Julie Vossler-Henderson, Daily Camera central news editor.
A university official previously cited two statutory provisions, arguing they protected the university from disclosure of the records of anyone who is not a finalist.
That set up a debate over whether a finalist is categorized as the successful individual named by the university or the final six candidates who advanced to the final round of interviews.
