Public Information

The Virginia Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), located at 2.2-3700 et Seq. of the Code of Virginia, guarantees citizens of the commonwealth and representatives of the media access to public records held by public bodies, public officials and public employees. This summary is provided for use by individual citizens or media outlets seeking access to public records from Christopher Newport.

A public record is any writing or recording – whether it is a paper record, electronic file, audio or video recording, or in any other format – that is prepared by, owned by or in the possession of a public body or its officers, employees or agents, in the transaction of public business.

Rights of Requestors

You may request to inspect or receive copies of public records by mail, by fax, by email, in person or over the phone:

• A request for records does not have to be made in writing
• A request for records does not need to refer to FOIA
• A request must be for existing records; FOIA does not require creation of the requested record

A request should be as specific as possible (the law requires "reasonable specificity") in order to facilitate identification and location of the records requested. In this regard, and as a practical matter, it is always helpful if a request is made in writing even though it is not required. A written request promotes a mutual understanding of the request and a point of reference for all should discussions be necessary in the course of providing a response.

Virginia's FOIA provides exceptions that permit the university to withhold certain public records from disclosure. In addition, there are state and federal laws that forbid disclosure of certain public records. If you are denied access to records or documents you have requested, you have the right to know what law or exemption requires or permits the record or document to be withheld.

If a request is large or difficult to respond to, the university may charge you the actual cost of its response. If a decision is made to charge for the response, you have the right to have the charges estimated in advance, so that you have the opportunity to modify your request to reduce the cost, or to withdraw your request.

To request documents or records from Christopher Newport, please email the university FOIA officer: Tom Kramer.

If your request is large or complex or if the records are difficult to access, please cooperate with the university's FOIA officers' efforts to clarify your request, or to attempt to reach a reasonable agreement about a response.

If you believe your FOIA rights have been violated, you have the right to file a petition in district or circuit court to compel compliance with the law.

If you request public documents or records, the university is required to respond to your request within five workdays:

• The five-day period does not include weekends or holidays
• Day one is the first day after your request is received

The university is permitted to ask you to provide your name and address.

The university must respond to your request, within five days, in one of three ways:

• By providing the records requested
• With a written response explaining that the requested records will not be disclosed and identifying the specific provision of law that requires or allows the records to be withheld
• By providing some records, but not others (as above, exemptions allowing or requiring records to be withheld must be identified and, if only a portion of a record is subject to an exemption, that portion may be redacted, but the entire record may not be withheld on that basis)

If it is – as a practical matter – impossible for the univesity to provide one of the above responses in five working days, we will provide a written response explaining the conditions that make it impossible. In this circumstance, the university has an additional seven working days to respond in one of the three ways set out above.

If you request a large volume of records, and the university believes it cannot provide the records to you within 12 working days without disrupting other organizational responsibilities, we may petition the court for additional time. However, prior to doing that, the law requires the university to make a reasonable effort to reach an agreement with you concerning providing the records.

You may have to pay for the records that you request.

A public body may make reasonable charges not to exceed its actual cost incurrred in accessing, duplicating, supplying, or searching for the requested records. No public body shall impose any extraneous, intermediary, or surplus fees or expenses to recoup the general costs associated with creating or maintaining records or transacting the general business of the public body. Any duplicating fee charged bya public body shall not exceed the actual cost of duplication. All charges for the supplying of requested records shall be estimated in advance at the request of the citizen as set form in subsection §2.2-3704 of the Code of Virginia.

FOIA permits CNU to charge for the actual cost of responding to a request for records:

• Actual costs include staff time spent searching for the requested records, copying costs, or any other costs directly related to supplying the requested records (it can not include general overhead costs);
• If we estimate it will cost more than $200 to respond, we may require you to pay a deposit, not to exceed the amount of the estimate, before we proceed;
• The time we have to respond does not include any time after we request a deposit until you respond;
• You may request that we estimate the charges in advance so that you have the opportunity to modify your request to reduce the estimated cost;
• If you owe payment for a previous request and response, that has remained unpaid for more than 30 days, CNU may require payment of the past-due bill before it will respond to your new FOIA request.

In general, CNU maintains the following categories of records:

• Business records
• Financial records
• Personnel (faculty and staff) records
• Student records
• Accreditation records
• Athletics records
• Board of Visitors records
• Student organization and services records

This list is intended as a summary and is not intended to be exhaustive.

CNU commonly withholds records subject to the following exemptions:

• Personnel records ( - 3705.1(1))
• Records related to the negotiation and award of a contract, prior to the contract being awarded (-3705.1(12))
• Scholastic records (- 3705.3)
• Records subject to the attorney client privilege (-3705.1(2)) or attorney work product (-3705.1(3))
• Vendor proprietary information (-3705.1(6))

This list is not intended to limit CNU's application of other available exemptions to withhold requested records as deemed necessary.