I shouldn’t have had to sue my own university for public records.
I’m a journalist for Mustang News, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo’s student-run newspaper. In my time here, I’ve covered unpaid overtime for student workers during orientation. I reported on Joseph Castro’s appointment to Cal Poly. I investigated how Cal Poly approached sexual assault prevention, which was corroborated by a state audit’s findings a few months later. While reporting these award-winning stories, I often wondered how administrators discussed campus safety concerns amongst each other.
So in September and October 2022, I filed a handful of Public Records Act requests to find out.
The school is required under law to promptly produce records in response to public records requests. I waited and received nothing but an occasional email telling me to keep waiting, and then months of silence.
On January 16, 2023, I followed up with the Cal Poly records office to ask about the status of my requests. We exchanged a few emails back and forth, but I didn’t get a clear response on when I would receive the records. In June 2023, the end of my sophomore year, the First Amendment Coalition sent a warning letter to Cal Poly. I received incremental updates from the university until September 2023 — a full year after I first requested them — but still no records.
At this point, a year since requesting the data and the start of my junior year, I felt my frustration build. In January 2024, a co-editor and I emailed the records office with a request to meet in person. We hoped to discuss the status of outstanding records requests — mine and from other Mustang News reporters — and to understand why it had taken more than a year to receive public records. The university declined to meet with us twice.
The university’s silence damaged our team’s morale and limited our reporting abilities. Without the trust in the university to provide data we requested, without the time to address all these compliance issues, we could not do the journalism we set out to do. Nearly every meeting, we discussed records delays and brainstormed workarounds. The time we were supposed to spend discussing stories was overshadowed by discussions of records delays.
While I had some records to report from related to other stories I could have pursued at the time, the sheer principle of waiting more than a year for public records was unbearable. I refused to pick and choose which public records should be available, when they are supposed to be public in the first place.
With FAC representing me, I sued the university for the records last April. And in November, we settled the case and I got my records and a commitment from Cal Poly’s records office to meet with Mustang News staff in person every academic term for three academic years. Records office staff also received training in January 2025, which was published, unedited, for the public to view.
It shouldn’t have taken a lawsuit for public records staff to meet with student journalists to explain their process, for me to finally get the meetings I was denied before. In the time waiting for records, I completed six quarters at Cal Poly. I got my driver’s license. I turned 20. I moved. I broke my nose. I reported more than 100 stories. I finished two internships and started a third. I’m 21 now and closing out my senior year this spring.
Today, I’m being honored by the Society of Professional Journalists with a student journalism award, thanks to my fight for transparency. But I’m sad this happened. Perpetual delays impeded my trust in the university, and forced me and my peers to pivot constantly. We had to drop story ideas as we rationed our energy, efforts, and talents while we waited for our requests to be fulfilled.
Public records cannot just be public in theory. Records need to be accessible so journalists can report on issues accurately and with full context. Government agencies must respond efficiently so it doesn’t take a lawsuit and months of waiting. I’m hopeful this lawsuit serves as a reminder to Cal Poly that it is unacceptable to wait out student journalists to move on or graduate instead of fulfilling their requests.
I’m grateful the First Amendment Coalition decided to represent me. Without their help, I don’t know what would have changed. I spent a lot of time wondering if I was within my rights to advocate for the public records, and FAC’s advocacy reminded me each step of the way that I was not alone.