Title IX complaints

Dear Cara Kelly:

Thank you for your interest in the public records of The University of Texas at Austin.
Your request has been given the reference number R004939-080823 for
tracking purposes. Your request is being processed in accordance with Chapter
552 of Texas Government Code, the Public Information Act. We will respond to
you on or before 8/23/2023. Records Requested: To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

I’m requesting any and all records maintained under Title IX of sexual harassment, stalking, misconduct or assault from August 2013 - present. Requested records include but are not limited to: formal or informal complaints, violations, investigations, findings of facts, disciplinary records, disciplinary proceedings, emails, correspondence, meeting notes and documentation, etc.

If for any reason any portion of this request is denied, please provide written notice of the specific portions of records that have been withheld, and the specific statutory basis for the withholding.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Cara Kelly

Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/
PLEASE NOTE: The Public Information Act, found in Chapter 552 of Texas Government Code, does not require a governmental body to create new
information, to do legal research, or to answer questions.

You can monitor the progress of your request at the link below and you'll receive an email when your request has been completed. Again, thank you for using The University of Texas at Austin Public Information Portal.
The University of Texas at Austin
To monitor the progress or update this request please log into the Public Information Portal (https://utexas.mycusthelp.com/WEBAPP/_rs/CustomerIssues.aspx)

RE: PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST # R004939-080823


Dear Cara Kelly,

The University of Texas at Austin received a public information request from you which provides as follows:
To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

I’m requesting any and all records maintained under Title IX of sexual harassment, stalking, misconduct or assault from August 2013 - present. Requested records include but are not limited to: formal or informal complaints, violations, investigations, findings of facts, disciplinary records, disciplinary proceedings, emails, correspondence, meeting notes and documentation, etc.

If for any reason any portion of this request is denied, please provide written notice of the specific portions of records that have been withheld, and the specific statutory basis for the withholding.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Cara Kelly

Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/

Section 552.222 of the Texas Public Information Act permits a governmental body to ask a requestor to clarify or narrow a request for information if the request is unclear or if a large amount of information has been requested.  The purpose of this letter is to ask that you clarify or narrow your request by providing us with more information about the particular records you seek.  The following paragraph highlights the aspect of your request that we find to be unclear or overly broad.

The records in response to your request would be extremely voluminous, and therefore producing them would require that you may a very large fee. In addition, production would take many months if not years to complete. Therefore, please consider narrowing your request in at least two of the following ways:
• Significantly narrow the time frame
• Specify a particular case or cases for which you would like records
• Provide specific search terms that should appear within responsive records
• Specify some particular type of document or some specific information that you are looking for regarding each case.

Please let us know how you wish to proceed.  Upon receipt of your response, we will resume work on your request.  You may deliver your response by replying to this email or by any one of the following means:

By U.S. Mail:
Attn:  Open Records Coordinator
Office of the Vice President for Legal Affairs
The University of Texas at Austin
P.O. Box R
Austin, Texas 78713-8918
By Hand Delivery:
Office of the Vice President for Legal Affairs
Peter T. Flawn Academic Center, Suite 438
2304 Whitis Avenue
Austin, Texas 78712
By Fax:
512-471-1255
Please note that, in accordance with section 552.222 of the Texas Government Code, your request will be considered withdrawn if you do not respond to this request for narrowing and clarification in writing within 61 days from the date of this letter.
If you have any questions, please contact my office at 512-471-8300. Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,


Bob Bonner-Davis
Chief Public Information Coordinator
Office of the Vice President for Legal Affairs

To view the full details of this request please log into the Public Information Portal. (https://utexas.mycusthelp.com/WEBAPP/_rs/CustomerIssues.aspx)

--- Please respond above this line ---

RE: PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST # R004939-080823
Dear Cara Kelly,
The University of Texas at Austin received a public information request from you which provides as follows: To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

I’m requesting any and all records maintained under Title IX of sexual harassment, stalking, misconduct or assault from August 2013 - present. Requested records include but are not limited to: formal or informal complaints, violations, investigations, findings of facts, disciplinary records, disciplinary proceedings, emails, correspondence, meeting notes and documentation, etc.

If for any reason any portion of this request is denied, please provide written notice of the specific portions of records that have been withheld, and the specific statutory basis for the withholding.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Cara Kelly

Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/
Section 552.222 of the Texas Public Information Act permits a governmental body to ask a requestor to clarify or narrow a request for information if the request is unclear or if a large amount of information has been requested.  The purpose of this letter is to ask that you clarify or narrow your request by providing us with more information about the particular records you seek.  The following paragraph highlights the aspect of your request that we find to be unclear or overly broad.
Yes, Title XI should be able to search their files for specific keywords. However, since we don't know what the volume of cases will look like, and because of the large volume of documentation that usually accompanies any case, we still consider your request to be overly broad, since you ask for "all documents" regarding cases that mention any of the keywords. We ask that you please let us know what specific documentation you're looking for regarding each case. For example, maybe you want copies of the original complaints, and/or copies of the final reports/closure memoranda that resolve each case?
Additionally, since messages sent within GovQA lose all formatting, we also need you to provide the list of keywords again, but with commas or some other punctuation between each keyword. Since the first few terms you list did include punctuation between the words, we don't need clarification of the Whitmire or Miles ones, but we need to know how the following terms are meant to be multi-word keywords: "Texas legislature state capitol legislative aid senate messenger house page statehouse criminal justice committee Patsy Spaw". (If they were all treated as separate keywords, I think there would be way more results than you want, since words like "Texas", "state", "aid", "messenger", "house", "page", and "committee" are used in so many different contexts.)
Finally, it would be helpful if you could be more specific about where the keyword should appear within each casefile. For example, would you be willing to limit the request to cases in which the complaint itself mentions one of the keywords? Please provide some additional information about the context in which the keyword should appear (e.g., describing a witness) or some specific document that should include the keyword (e.g., the final report/closure memo).
Please let us know how you wish to proceed.  Upon receipt of your response, we will resume work on your request.  You may deliver your response by replying to this email or by any one of the following means:
By U.S. Mail:
Attn:  Open Records Coordinator
Office of the Vice President for Legal Affairs
The University of Texas at Austin
P.O. Box R
Austin, Texas 78713-8918

By Hand Delivery:
Office of the Vice President for Legal Affairs
Peter T. Flawn Academic Center, Suite 438
2304 Whitis Avenue
Austin, Texas 78712

By Fax:
512-471-1255
Please note that, in accordance with section 552.222 of the Texas Government Code, your request will be considered withdrawn if you do not respond to this request for narrowing and clarification in writing within 61 days from the date of this letter.

If you have any questions, please contact my office at 512-471-8300. Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,
Bob Bonner-Davis
Chief Public Information Coordinator
Office of the Vice President for Legal Affairs

--- Please respond above this line ---

RE: PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST Reference # R004939-080823

Dear Cara Kelly,
The University of Texas at Austin received a public information request from you which provides as follows:
To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

I’m requesting any and all records maintained under Title IX of sexual harassment, stalking, misconduct or assault from August 2013 - present. Requested records include but are not limited to: formal or informal complaints, violations, investigations, findings of facts, disciplinary records, disciplinary proceedings, emails, correspondence, meeting notes and documentation, etc.

If for any reason any portion of this request is denied, please provide written notice of the specific portions of records that have been withheld, and the specific statutory basis for the withholding.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Cara Kelly

Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/
Most of the information that is responsive to your request is now available for download on our Public Information Portal. Please login to the Public Information Portal at the following link to retrieve the appropriate responsive documents. Public Information Request - R004939-080823
Note that we have redacted these records under the following provisions of Texas and/or federal law:

Identifying information of students as required by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), 20 U.S.C §1232g;
Identifying information of individuals who reported possible Title IX violations under 34 CFR 106.71; and
Information pertaining to a pending compliance investigation based on Texas Educ. Code § 51.971(e)(1).
There is one additional responsive document, but it is not yet ready for release. At this time, we estimate that The University will have the information ready for you on or before 5:00 p.m. on 9/25/2023. Thank you for your patience in awaiting this information.
If you have any questions or need additional information, please feel free to contact my office at 512-471-8300.

Sincerely,
Bob Bonner-Davis
Chief Public Information Coordinator
Office of the Vice President for Legal Affairs

--- Please respond above this line ---

RE: PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST Reference # R004939-080823

Dear Cara Kelly,
The University of Texas at Austin received a public information request from you which provides as follows:
To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

I’m requesting any and all records maintained under Title IX of sexual harassment, stalking, misconduct or assault from August 2013 - present. Requested records include but are not limited to: formal or informal complaints, violations, investigations, findings of facts, disciplinary records, disciplinary proceedings, emails, correspondence, meeting notes and documentation, etc.

If for any reason any portion of this request is denied, please provide written notice of the specific portions of records that have been withheld, and the specific statutory basis for the withholding.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Cara Kelly

Upload documents directly: https://www.muckrock.com/
All of the information that is responsive to your request is now available for download on our Public Information Portal. Please login to the Public Information Portal at the following link to retrieve the appropriate responsive documents. Public Information Request - R004939-080823
If you have any questions or need additional information, please feel free to contact my office at 512-471-8300.

Sincerely,
Bob Bonner-Davis
Chief Public Information Coordinator
Office of the Vice President for Legal Affairs