EDITORIAL: Former President Rao's confidentiality agreements disturbing
Presidents at state universities should, as a policy, be as open as possible, as officials in the spotllight whose salaries are paid by taxpayers and student tuition.
Recently, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported about former University President Michael Rao’s requirement of employees working in his Virginia Commonwealth University office to sign confidentiality agreements flies in the face of the concept of administrative transparency.
The agreement, which bars employees from discussing Rao, his family and interactions with the Raos in his office or place of residence, is reportedly the same as an agreement his office employees at Central Michigan University signed. The specifics of the CMU agreement are subject to a Freedom Of Information Act request by CM Life, which is currently pending.
Director of Public Relations Steve Smith redirected an inquiring reporter to file a FOIA request for any information regarding the confidentiality agreement, which raises more suspicion than the nature of the confidentiality agreement itself.
Rao and other university presidents have the right to their privacy as much as any other private citizen. However, the expectation of privacy in the workplace is very limited, and that should not be any different for a president than any other employee of a state university.
If Rao’s reasoning for requiring such confidentiality from office employees is to keep his personal life separate from his work, it is less objectionable. However, a university president’s performance, in the office and out, needs to be subject to evaluation by the people the president represents; university employees, students and, ultimately, taxpayers.
As far as its current effects on CMU, hopefully President George Ross does not plan on following the precedent of Rao as far as these confidentiality agreements. As has been expressed previously, Ross needs to be as open and visible as he possibly can be; or at least as open and visible as he had promised upon entering the position.
As they are hired and not elected, university presidents cannot be held to all the same standards as a government official. But when alternatively likened to the CEO of a private company, one must point out that CEOs must be held accountable to their shareholders.
In this case, the shareholders are students and taxpayers, and they should expect no less.
