FAYETTEVILLE -- Top donors to colleges and universities sometimes want to remain anonymous, said Noah Drezner, an associate professor at Columbia University's Teachers College.
"Oftentimes when institutions are not giving out names, it was because it was at the donor's request," said Drezner, who studies giving to colleges and universities.
The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville released gift agreements or supporting documents for 11 gifts in response to an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette request for records of the university's top 10 gifts in fiscal 2017.
UA redacted some of the documents, withholding the identities of donors in six of those 11 gifts.
"Limited information has been redacted in the event the donor has requested anonymity, based on the competitive advantage exemption to the FOIA," UA public information officer Rebecca Morrison said in an email, referring to the state Freedom of Information Act.
The public disclosure law says records may be withheld when "if disclosed, [they] would give an advantage to competitors or bidders."
Limited release of information about key donor gifts to public universities has long been a contentious issue in Arkansas and elsewhere.
John Tull, an attorney for the Arkansas Press Association who specializes in public disclosure and open records issues, said in an email that he doubted whether the competitive advantage exemption should be applied to a donor's identity.
"It would seem to require that if anonymity were not provided that the gift would be made to another university and that seems far-fetched to me," Tull said. He said the competitive advantage exemption is intended "to protect business competitors and typically this is applied to trade secrets or other financial information."
UA spokesman Mark Rushing said "there are instances where a donor will provide a gift only on a condition of anonymity." Asked how often this takes place, Rushing said he "would not want to generalize on the frequency of that occurring."
In cases where the donor's identity was withheld, UA still released gift agreements or supporting documents. "That can increase the level of transparency," Drezner said, explaining that releasing gift agreements can help "show there's not going to be undue influence."
In 2002, the Little Rock-based Arkansas Times filed a lawsuit under the state's public-disclosure law seeking the release of a proposal that helped UA land a $300 million gift from the Walton Family Charitable Support Foundation. Retail giant Walmart was founded by Sam Walton.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza ruled that the university could withhold the proposal. He also made clear that a gift agreement, once finalized, is subject to public disclosure.
In other states, however, details about gifts to public universities remain out of sight.
Last month, the Knoxville (Tenn.) News Sentinel reported that only two public universities in the Southeastern Conference -- not including the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville -- agreed to release a list of top 10 donations and gift agreements. The University of Alabama and the University of Kentucky provided the information, according to the News Sentinel.
In response to the News Sentinel's requests for records, some schools -- Auburn University, the University of Florida, Louisiana State University, Mississippi State University, the University of Mississippi and the University of Tennessee -- had stated that records kept with campus-supporting foundations were not public, the News Sentinel reported.
Public-disclosure laws vary by state, and there have been legal cases over whether gift details should be considered open records.
The Louisville Courier-Journal sued after the foundation supporting the University of Louisville, a public university, withheld the names of donors and the terms of gift agreements.
The courts recognized the foundation as a public agency, though in many states, including Arkansas, courts have not ruled on such a distinction for similar campus foundations.
Not released by the University of Arkansas were any gifts agreements made with the athletics-supporting Razorback Foundation, though Morrison said two such gifts would have fallen within the range of the largest gifts for fiscal 2017.
Morrison said the university "does not maintain copies of those gift agreements or similar records." The Razorback Foundation has repeatedly declined requests for other records made under the state's Freedom of Information Act, stating that it is not required to comply with the law.
In Kentucky, even with the foundation considered a public agency, the Kentucky Supreme Court in 2008 weighed the privacy interests of donors who asked to remain anonymous. The court ultimately ruled that donors would not be able to remain anonymous.
"It was a simple rationale that we used. These donors are doing business with a public agency, with a university," said Jon Fleischaker, a media law attorney who represented the Courier-Journal in the case.
He added: "The public has a right to know who's doing business with the university, and the court agreed with us."
Others who study philanthropy say anonymous gifts have a long tradition and that donors' wishes should be respected.
"Anonymous giving has always been seen as a very good form of giving. There's lots of writing about it going back to Bible," said Leslie Lenkowsky, an emeritus professor at Indiana University who studies philanthropy.
He said large donors may have specific reasons for choosing to stay anonymous.
"Donors do not like to be seen as making these gifts because they're worried that their doors will be beaten down by others seeking money," Lenkowsky said.
In Virginia, a student-led group has sued for the release of donor agreements kept by the foundation supporting the public George Mason University, according to the The Associated Press. A trial took place last week, with the students seeking the disclosure of details about gifts made by the conservative Koch Foundation.
On Friday, gift agreements released by George Mason University showed that the Koch Foundation had some say in faculty hiring, The Washington Post and The Associated Press reported. Some old agreements specified the creation of five-member selection committees to choose professors and allowed the foundation to pick two committee members.
George Mason University president Angel Cabrera on Monday requested a review of all active donor agreements "to ensure that they do not grant donors undue influence in academic matters," the Post reported.
The University of Arkansas, Fayetteville released some records of gift agreements made between donors and the University of Arkansas Foundation, which exists to provide support for the UA System.
After the Democrat-Gazette made the request for two specific gift agreements from the same unnamed donor totaling more than $10 million, the university asked the University of Arkansas Foundation for copies of the agreements, Morrison said.
Upon "receiving approval from the donor to release the records," the foundation "courteously agreed to furnish the records," Morrison said, with the university then releasing them to the Democrat-Gazette. One gift was made to support UA's Supply Chain Research Center and another to support UA's Department of Education Reform.
The two gift agreements specify that the University of Arkansas Foundation "agrees to keep confidential and not to disclose to any third party the existence of and contents of this Agreement without express written approval from the Donor."
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Metro on 05/03/2018