U-M Refuses to Disclose Its President's Politicking

The University of Michigan is withholding some emails its president sent regarding President Donald Trump, claiming their content is protected under the Freedom of Information Act. The university, which took 106 days to respond to the open records request, claimed the content in those emails were “preliminary and advisory in nature.”

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy announced last Thursday that it is suing the university over a monthslong delay in completing its request for public information....

Michigan Capitol Confidential reported in early February that the Mackinac Center filed a FOIA request with the university on Nov. 16, 2016, asking for Schlissel’s emails containing the word “Trump.”

The request was filed after Schlissel made anti-Trump remarks at an on-campus protest on Nov. 9, the day after the election.

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At the postelection protest on campus, Schlissel implied that students who voted for Trump voted for hate.

“Your voices worked out to be a 90/10 decision in favor of the unsuccessful candidate yesterday,” Schlissel told those at the protest. “Ninety percent of you rejected the kind of hate and the fractiousness and the longing for some sort of idealized version of a nonexistent yesterday that was expressed during (Trump's) campaign.” (The Michigan Daily has published a video of Schlissel’s speech.)

John Mozena, Mackinac Center vice president for marketing and communications, said in a press release that the FOIA request was only made because of Schlissel’s public comments.

“In his professional role as head of a public university, President Schlissel took a very public stance against President-elect Trump and the people who elected him,” he said. “Our CapCon team was interested in learning more about the decision-making process that led to the actions taken by this public university and its employee, and filed the FOIA request accordingly.”