Virgina Colleges and Universities can be forced to meet live – Virginia Mercury

Public colleges and universities of Virginia may soon be required to transfer the meetings of the visitors Council, guaranteeing real -time access to the public. The proposal, which has accepted the Chamber and is now heading for the Senate, aims to increase transparency in the management of higher education.

House bill 2452Sponsored by Del Keith Hodges, R-Middlesx, upgrades on a 2021 efforts Requirement of public institutions to disclose certain information. If adopted, the bill imposes all bachelor’s public institutions in Virginia not only live their meetings on board, but also archive public access records. Hodges said that the legislation will be revised to guarantee the feasibility of the initiative next year.

“The goal is to ensure that decisions made with the help of public funds are held openly, allowing the public to keep these institutions really responsible for their actions and we can really see what is happening,” Hoj said during a hearing of the subcommittee on January 27.

A previous law required institutions to develop and apply the streaming standard until July 1, 2022, but not every school followed. The Hodges bill will insist that these standards be reviewed and implemented.

Megan Rein, CEO of the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, called the lack of compliance with the adherence to “long” and expressed dissatisfaction that educational institutions resist what local authorities are profitable.

“Universities are different from other public bodies because they have more electoral areas than every public body in the state,” Rein told Mercury this week. “They have constituencies in other countries that cannot come to Virginia to attend these meetings, so we consider it – as a very basic measure – they must broadcast their meetings on the Visitor Council.”

In 2021, Virginia directed the State Council for Higher Education for Virginia – working together with the Advisory Board for Freedom of Information in Virginia – to develop a minimum standard for meetings of the management of the live board.

The report received recommends that all public institutions provide electronic access in real time until full meetings of the governing body via video or live audio stream. He also stressed that these flows should comply with the Disabled Americans Act and the 1973 Rehabilitation Act.

Despite these recommendations, there is no complete compliance.

“Although I appreciate the delegate’s attempt to compromise, I actually support the original bill, because it is something that is long overdue, which has had recommendations four years ago that obviously not introduced, which would not otherwise have to make this bill,” said Rhin during the hearing of the Home’s Horset on January 27 on higher education.

Representatives of Virginia Tech and the University of Mary Washington have expressed support for the legislation, praising legislators’ desire to cooperate.

“This process not only provides a balanced approach, but also encourages a spirit of cooperation between stakeholders,” Hodges said last week. “Such collaboration helps to ease the concerns of public universities about costs and logistics, while ensuring that the goals of transparency are achieved.”

The bill sailed through the House with 95-4 votes and is now awaiting a review by the Senate Education and Health Committee. By Thursday night, she was not yet scheduled for a hearing.