This academic year, we filed hundreds of requests with Michigan State University’s Freedom of Information Act Office.
They ranged from the most standard of FOIAs — legal bills and emails between officials — to some more bizarre requests. Our favorites include the personnel documents that introduced MSU to the now-infamous “meth professor” and documents relating to an alleged system of secret underground bunkers beneath campus.
The university’s handling of our requests has been extremely frustrating. We’ve dealt with countless unjust denials and redactions that keep information of great importance out of the public eye.
We’ve overcome some of MSU’s attempts to avoid scrutiny with crafty administrative appeals and human sourcing. We’re working on others with an ongoing FOIA lawsuit against the university.
It’s a serious issue that keeps the public uninformed about the use of their tuition and tax dollars.
But sometimes, the redactions are quite funny — at least to FOIA nerds like us.
So, we’ve compiled the funniest FOIA redactions of this academic year.
Blackout poetry
Sometimes the FOIA office’s extravagant redactions made for artsy blackout poetry.
