If UNLV needs a role model for disclosure, try Ohio

By Jeff German (contact), Steve Kanigher (contact)

Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007 | 7:53 a.m.

As the Nevada System of Higher Education grapples with how to disclose the off-campus consulting work of its educators and other professional staff, it could look to Ohio for advice.

As in Nevada, Ohio professors must give their supervisors forms that detail their outside consulting jobs and any other potential conflicts of interest with their campus duties. Unlike in Nevada, though, that information is available to the public.

"In Ohio, and at Ohio State, these conflict of interest forms would be a matter of public record," Ohio State University spokesman Jim Lynch said Wednesday. "Since many of our public record requests come in directly to each individual college, it is difficult for me to tell you how many requests we have received for such documents."

Prompted by a records request from the Sun, officials who run Nevada's universities and community colleges are exploring ways to give the public at least some information about academics' off-campus work without jeopardizing their relationships with those outside businesses or government agencies.

Bart Patterson, the system's attorney, said its staff plans to forward a recommendation to the Board of Regents in November that would include some level of public disclosure.

Whether that level of disclosure matches Ohio's has not been determined. In Ohio, the disclosure includes not only the name of the individual, company or government agency that is receiving the faculty member's services but also the nature of the services and the dates they are provided.

Regent Steve Sisolak said he hopes the university system follows Ohio's lead.

"I would think our faculty would want this to be public," he said. "Hopefully, no one has anything to hide. These individual salaries are supported by taxpayer dollars, and I think they have an obligation and a duty to the public to reveal their outside sources of income."

The Ohio disclosure law, however, has limits. It prohibits public access to information regarding a professor's intellectual property, such as unpublished research, including work sponsored by a private entity, according to the Ohio attorney general's office.

Ted Hart, spokesman for Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, said lawyers in that office could not recall any instance when anyone challenged the public's access to university files involving conflicts of interest or outside consulting.

"My impression is that Ohio's sunshine law is pretty good," Hart said. "It's also a strong issue for our attorney general because he supports transparency."