Rep. Mark Gottlieb (R-60) thinks so. He is currently circulating proposed legislation for co-sponsors that would do just that.
Here is a pdf of the proposed legislation and the summary from the Legislative Reference Bureau.
Analysis by the Legislative Reference Bureau
Currently, students at the University of Wisconsin (UW) System and the Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) have the right to organize themselves in a manner they determine and to select their representatives to participate in institutional or technical college district governance. Upon consultation with the appropriate chancellor and subject to the approval of the Board of Regents of the UW System, UW students have responsibility for disposition of revenues from those student fees that constitute substantial support for campus student activities. Upon consultation with the district director and subject to the approval of the district board, technical college students in each technical college district have responsibility for disposition of revenues from student activity and incidental fees authorized by law. Currently, coverage of the public records access and open meetings laws is determined in part based upon whether a governmental unit or body is created by the constitution or a statute, ordinance, rule, or order. Currently, no statute creates a unit or body of students at the UW or the WTCS.
This bill provides that any body created by students at the UW System or the WTCS that has supervision or direction over the expenditure of revenues derived from mandatory student fees is covered under the public records access and open meetings laws. Under the bill, except as otherwise provided by law, any person has the right to inspect or copy a public record of a covered student organization unless the custodian demonstrates that the public interest in withholding access to the information contained in the record outweighs the strong public interest in providing access to that information. In addition, with certain exceptions, meetings of covered student governmental bodies must be preceded by public notice, must be held in places that are reasonably accessible to the public, and must be open to the public at all times. If a meeting is properly noticed, a body may, by recorded vote of a majority of the members present, convene in closed session for the purpose of considering certain matters specified by law.
We are currently talking with ASM leaders about what the potential implications of this legislation would mean for ASM and have also spoken with UW Senior University Legal Counsel, Nancy Lynch, to discuss what the effects of the legislation would mean were it to pass. There are still many questions about the legislation and its implications that still need to be answered. We are meeting with Rep. Gottlieb next week in order to hopefully clear up some of these questions.
[...] and records of state employees must also be made available to the public. Moreover, there is now talk in the legislature of subjecting UW student governments to open records laws. Now in Dane County, the Board of Supervisors will soon be making it possible for people like you [...]
[...] Open records for UW student government? By The Sconz Frankly, I don’t know why anybody in their right mind would care to look into the business of student government, but just in case any of you are crazy or bored enough to attempt, Patrick McEwen and Tom Templeton are looking after you. I ran into Patrick and Tom the other day. They were looking spiffy after their meeting with Rep. Mark Gottlieb, a Republican member of the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities. They’d been discussing proposals to subject UW student governments to open records law. Gottlieb is the author of one such bill. [...]
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