HARRISONBURG – Editors of James Madison University’s student publication The Breeze are accusing the University and Student Government Association of Freedom of Information Act violations by suddenly ejecting reporters from covering an SGA Tuesday night meeting that was quickly designated “closed”. The Breeze News Editor Eleanor Shaw in an article tells the story of a 6:15pm SGA meeting for which two reporters and two photographers arrived at 6:05 upon which Associate Director of Cultural Education and Engagement and SGA faculty adviser Rebeca Barge told them the first 30-minutes would be closed. Shaw says she was there coordinating the reporters and photographers who cited a public body cannot under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act hold a closed meeting without beginning in an open session, then vote to go into closed session citing any of 46 exemptions.

Shaw said numerous legal opinions say a student government is a public body subject to state FOIA provisions because they allocate student fee money to campus groups. At the meeting, JMU Vice President for Student Affairs Tim Miller was to address the SGA in a presentation called “Student Government Association & Responsibilities as State Actors.” After Shaw and the others did not receive any response when asking the exemption for which the closed meeting is legally called, they got no answer. She says Miller said, “That is not how FOIA works.”
Miller continued, “This is not a document that you can FOIA later.”

The Breeze has since received a letter of support from the School of Media Arts & Design faculty, and a statement from the University.