Tommie De Riemaecker needed statistics on how the Macomb County Sheriff's Office used Breathalyzers - how often police used them, the arresting officer, what alcohol percentages people blew, etc.

Just as anyone looking for information not available through interviews, De Riemaecker made a Freedom of Information Act request for the class assignment.

One week and $25 later, the journalism senior got most of what he was looking for. Fortunately for him, his requests came in the guise of a journalism class, and the project didn't require him to write a story. For those not prepared to pay for government information, the sometimes lengthy and costly process of FOIA requests have deterred many from getting the information they want, local attorneys said.

The intention of FOIA and the Open Meetings Act was to create an atmosphere for more transparent governments, but a national trend suggests the opposite.

"It's like pulling teeth trying to make (governmental groups) conform to the acts," said Henry Silverman, vice president of the Lansing branch of the American Civil Liberties Union and MSU history professor emeritus. "These laws were made to open up government, but they are closing down their processes and going the other way."

Since 1999, MSU FOIA requests have risen 22 percent. In 2004, the number of requests totaled 170 compared to 133 in 1999.

"Michigan State is a high-profile public body subject to FOIA and is experiencing the same interest in its operations that most government bodies are - from school boards to city councils to road commissions," said Tom Quasarano, an adjunct professor teaching media and the law at MSU's School of Journalism.

Secrecy surrounding MSU's Board of Trustees' informal meetings and the timeliness of police crime-report releases has often stepped on the toes of the public's so-called "right to know," faculty leaders said.

Open meetings?

At MSU, the secrecy begins at the top - with MSU's Board of Trustees.

Closed board meetings are "not so much secret, but informal, and not really meetings at all," said Grover Hudson, president of the MSU chapter of the American Association of University Professors.

These closed meetings are usually conducted the week before monthly board meetings to inform trustees of the issues they'll vote on later at the public meetings, he said.

"The results of those gatherings is that when (board members) come together, they've already decided (on issues)," said Hudson, a linguistics professor.

The process leaves faculty members and the public out of the decision-making process, Hudson said, because the board is often set on decisions before they come to the monthly public meetings.

MSU Trustee David Porteous said the preliminary discussions sometimes address confidential issues, such as investment decisions and employment and labor issues, which have to be kept confidential. But ultimately, decisions are made at their open board meetings, he said.

"You endeavor to balance -- important issues of confidentiality with transparency, and that's the important balance you strike during preliminary discussion," Porteous said. "It is entirely appropriate that you have some preliminary discussions where you're able to have some confidential discussions."

The question of administration secrecy extends beyond MSU.

After a 1999 Michigan court ruling allowing university boards to meet behind closed doors to elect a president, universities have been extending the ruling to evade the Open Meetings Act, said Oakland County-based attorney Herschel Fink.

Because the Michigan Constitution suggests state universities are autonomous bodies, or independent from the Legislature, university boards might consider themselves free from these applicable laws, Fink said.

"They don't have to obey because they are essentially above the law," he said. "Simply because the constitution of the state of Michigan gives them autonomy."

Fink is representing Oakland University's student newspaper, The Oakland Post, in a lawsuit against the university's Board of Trustees for holding closed meetings. The newspaper argued the public officials should not hold meetings closed to the public. After a circuit court judge ruled in favor of Oakland's Board of Trustees, the case was submitted to the Michigan Court of Appeals and is awaiting oral arguments.

"The issue in Oakland is really a hot-button issue that squarely poses the questions of 'Do state universities get a pass when it comes to obligation under the Open Meetings Act?'" Fink said.

ACLU's Silverman said these closed meetings might meet the law, but not its essence.

"They're not violating the letter of the Open Meetings Act, but they're certainly violating the spirit of it," Silverman said. "It sends a bad message to the public.

"This is not a good time for the Open Meetings Act and not a good time for the Freedom of Information Act."

The records show that although FOIA requests have increased 22 percent between 1999 and 2004, 30 percent of requests end in a complete release of records. The amount of information released has stayed fairly consistent, journalism professor Quasarano said.

There is a 5-10 percent increase in the number of "partial release/partial withholding" records, according to MSU FOIA records.

Quasarano said a partial release of information is the most common because many records are composed of both exempt and non-exempt information.

"If someone were to make a request of a government body that includes personal information - a Social Security number, home address - the public body has permission to withhold information of a personal nature," he said.

Secrecy also has infiltrated the MSU libraries.

A CD-ROM, entitled "Source-Area Characteristics of Large Public Surface-Water Supplies in the Conterminous United States: An Information Resource Source-Water Assessment," was removed in 2001.

Shawn Nicholson, head of the Government Documents Library, said the library was asked to remove and destroy the CD in compliance with the Federal Depository Library Program.

According to a memorandum addressed to the Association of Research Libraries, in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. Geological Survey requested the Government Printing Office to instruct the libraries to destroy their copies. The FBI then investigated several libraries to see if they complied.

Police reports

An informed public is a reporting ideal. Broadcast and print journalists lean toward the release of more information to create an educated public, journalism Professor Dave Paulson said. And part of this omniscient ideal is determined by how much information media can obtain and present.

During the sexual assaults last September on MSU's campus, police said they didn't release information initially because the first two assaults, both reported as alleged acquaintance rapes instead of stranger rapes, did not pose an imminent threat to the public.

"If it was a situation where it was a stranger rape and it needed to go out, it would have been flagged by the detective bureau and sent out immediately," said Lt. Alan Haller in The State News' Sept. 10 edition.

This led The State News to report the initial Sept. 2-3 incidents on Sept. 10, a week after the first assault. At this time, the MSU police department had not released police reports, and The State News reported information obtained from the department's online blotter, a record of calls to police.

However, after a stranger assault early Sept. 10, police released information on the sexual assaults to the media, and Paul Goldblatt, director of Residence Life, sent an e-mail to inform students in residence halls of safety tips to prevent more sexual assaults.

He said after talking with MSU police, Residence Life officials decided it was appropriate to inform residents of what they could do to protect themselves. He added that e-mails are only sent out if residents could be in danger.

Two points raised from the September sexual assaults are how much information the public should know and how much media should rely on a police blotter versus a police report to provide information.

MSU police Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor reiterated reports were not made public because there was not an imminent threat to public safety with the alleged acquaintance rapes.

"If there's an ongoing investigation, there are certain things you don't want to share, because it's information that might hamper the investigation our detectives are doing," she said. "We don't have anything to hide. We want to utilize the public to capture the perpetrator."

The State News has made several FOIA requests for information on the sexual assaults, with the disclaimer it was not interested in the names or addresses of the accusers. The FOIA request was submitted by reporters at the paper, and the university did not release materials because they were part of ongoing investigations.

The Freedom of Information Act exempts police from releasing information on continuing investigations.

Criminal justice Professor David Carter said in cases such as the sexual assaults on MSU's campus, the police are sovereign in releasing information.

"Providing the media, hence the public, with data/information is not the top priority with the police," he said in an e-mail. "It's not out of any attempt to hide information, it is simply lower in the list of priorities. It's a matter of judgment and perspective by both the (police department) and the reporter. Neither are necessarily right or wrong - just different."