UW-Milwaukee Blacks Out Most of Braun’s Emails on Men’s Basketball, Jeter

Media Milwaukee sought 130 pages of Athletic Director Amanda Braun’s e-mails regarding the UW-Milwaukee men’s basketball program, including the controversial dismissal of former men’s basketball coach Rob Jeter and the team not being allowed to engage in post-season play. However, the university blacked out or redacted the contents of almost every email – including 29 emails involving the chancellor, who wrote or was copied on emails involving Braun multiple times the day and night before Jeter’s firing was announced.

A top legal advocate for student journalists believes the redactions may not be allowed under open records laws. (Watch a PantherVision campus television report on the email redactions here as part of the investigation into the UWM Athletics Department. You can read the blacked out Braun Emails here).

The few emails that weren’t blacked out show that Braun tried on March 16 to arrange a meeting with a man identified only as “Rob” for Friday, March 18 but was told he was out of town. Jeter’s firing was announced on Thursday, March 17. Emails between Braun and top university officials, including Chancellor Mark Mone, went late into the night of Wednesday March 16. Their contents, though, are blacked out.  (Read a listing of all of the Braun-Mone email dates and times here: Braun and Mone Email Timestamps.)

It is “very difficult to see how information about the removal of a high-profile figure like a college basketball coach would be so intimate or embarrassing so as to outweigh the public’s legitimate interest in that decision,” said Frank LoMonte, executive director of the non-profit Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Virginia. (Read the full Lomonte letter to Media Milwaukee.)

One of the reasons that UWM grounded its redactions in – “staff management planning” – was somewhat reminiscent of the Wisconsin Legislature’s move to consider banning from release “deliberative process” documents, which was shelved after it met major hue and cry last year from journalism organizations and the public.

The emails, sought by Media Milwaukee and PantherVision – through Wisconsin open records laws – ran from February 15 through March 16, the day before Jeter’s dismissal was announced. The news site received the e-mails on April 18. Page after page was merely an email header with large blacked out squares. Emails between Braun, the chancellor, the UWM spokesman and other officials tended to be blacked out. A few emails involving non university officials writing to Braun were not redacted.

Braun was in contact with Chancellor Mark Mone repeatedly in the days leading up to Jeter’s firing, 29 emails total. Of these, Braun or Mone were a direct recipient of 24, while Mone was cc’d in five. The emails were time stamped from March 8 until March 16, the day before Jeter’s firing was announced.

The e-mails that could be read showed the following:

• Braun wrote Sammi Schoen, an Athletic Department business and administration assistant, on Wednesday March 16 that “…please reschedule my meeting with Rob for 1 p.m. on Friday. Let me know as soon as you hear from him.”
•  Another Braun email was redacted, but a Schoen response, on March 16, at 10:36 a.m., read, “Rob said he is going to be out of town (blacked out) on Friday so cannot do the meeting then. He said he could make almost anything work next week if you want me to schedule something then?” Rob Jeter’s firing was announced the next day, March 17. This email was part of a flurry of emails between Braun and top university officials, including Mone and university legal counsel, on March 16.
• The emails among top university officials on the eve of the announcement of Jeter’s firing went late into the night of Wednesday March 16. For example, that night at 8:45 p.m, Braun wrote an email to Chancellor Mone, two vice chancellors, the university’s lawyer, and the university’s PR spokesperson. The email was blacked out. This email was responding to an 8:32 p.m. email from Mone that night.
• The emails also showed that tensions were running high before the Jeter firing as a result of the team not being allowed by Braun to enter post-season play, which was widely reported on March 11. Chancellor Mone received an e-mail on March 11 at 11:19 AM from David Nicholas, a large donor to UWM. Nicholas told Mone “this is not a financial issue, monies are available if needed.” The controversy also extended up the office of UW System President Ray Cross, emails show.
• Braun was criticized by parents and fans of the team in some unredacted emails and, again, this was before the Jeter firing but after the post-season play ban. One parent said: “did we make a mistake in thinking that Milwaukee supports its teams, its coaches and players?? I’m really kind of feeling that way…” The university blacked out the parent’s name.
• Braun received some support as well, including from UW professors, saying things such as “lady, you got guts!” and “thank you for letting everyone know about the Milwaukee Athletic Department’s standard for excellence.”
• Braun had some candid things to say, such as “amazing what some people can get away with while the rest of us have to suffer while trying to do the right thing.” This came in response to an email from Theodore King, who expressed support for Braun.
• She continued to reiterate the post-season play ban was financial, sending out a boilerplate response. This constituted a significant portion of the viewable e-mails.

Along with the documents, UWM’s open records official Julie Kipp provided a document providing reasoning for the redactions. The university’s reasoning revolves primarily around 5 main points:

• Nonresponsive Information: According to Kipp, this included “headings addressed to me (Kipp) when Athletic Director Braun forwarded the responsive emails.”
• Non-Records: Kipp said this refers to “specific weekend plans and names of spouses” as they are protected under public records.
• Student Information: Personally identifiable information (student’s name, name/s of parents/family, address, etc.)
• Attorney/Client Privilege: “Content in which legal consultation was requested, provided, or referred to.” (LoMonte said, “The attorney-client privilege does not cover every single email between the lawyer for a government agency and its employees. The email would have to be about the delivery of legal advice, and it would have to contain confidential information that isn’t already widely known or hasn’t been shared with others. It’s a narrow exemption that should not give the college a blanket license to withhold every word of every email involving a lawyer.”)
• Staff Management Planning: Kipp said this constitutes “performance evaluations, judgements, promotions and job assignments” and other employee-related manners.

In another section of the reasoning document, Kipp states that the “presumption of open access must be balanced against the harm that would result to the public interest if the records are released, including the privacy and reputation interests of individuals.”

LoMonte, of the Student Press Law Center,  said the denial received by Media Milwaukee “is not a legally sufficient denial,” citing two past Wisconsin cases in his defense of this statement. The Student Press Law Center is the nation’s only legal assistance agency for college and high school journalists concerned about First Amendment issues.

LoMonte would go on to tell Media Milwaukee, “the public has a significant investment in college athletics, and there is a right to know whether these programs are being well-managed.”

Media Milwaukee also contacted Bill Lueders, a reporter for the Wisconsin Center of Investigative Journalism who is president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council. http://www.wisfoic.org/

Lueders told Media Milwaukee that it is important to consider “whether the redactions allow or prevent you from drawing meaningful conclusions about the actions of public officials.” Lueders also said it should be asked “do the redactions deprive the public of vital information?”

The e-mails that were not redacted consisted primarily of messages in regards to Braun’s decision that the team would not participate in two postseason tournaments, as Jeter’s firing was announced after they were written. Braun responded to a large number of these messages with a form letter, which said in part “decisions are also heavily influenced by financial considerations and the responsible use of our resources.”

Media Milwaukee sought the records to help the public glean a better understanding of what led up to the Jeter firing in particular, which has sparked heated outcry from some corners while Braun has defended it by saying that the team did not meet expectations. UWM has now hired Lavall Jordan to replace Jeter, and Jeter has taken an assistant coaching job at UNLV. Multiple players requested transfer, and the team’s longtime radio announcer quit in an Instagram post that harshly criticized Braun.

One individual who was vehemently against the postseason decision was Nicholas. Nicholas is a UWM graduate, as well as a big financial supporter of UWM. In the past, he has given many large donations to the school, particularly the Lubar School of Business. According to UWM’s 2014 Research Report, Nicholas once provided $100,000 to help business students begin their portfolios. In addition, Nicholas donated $2.5 million to Lubar in 2008 to build the Applied Finance Lab and create an endowment.

In an e-mail to Chancellor Mark Mone on March 11, obtained through the Media Milwaukee open records request, Nicholas said of Braun’s decision, “it’s just wrong,” and said that, in his opinion, it would “come back to haunt the future of the entire program.”

In addition to Nicholas, a UWM player parent e-mailed Braun expressing disappointment. In the e-mail, the parent discussed support of the athletic program over the years, including donating to the program following a parent meeting the parent said was held by the athletic staff last November. The parent said, “I am feeling that was a mistake. You haven’t earned my trust after this debacle and I’m really no longer a Proud Parent. I’m a rather disgusted one.”

Messages of support were also contained in the e-mails provided to Media Milwaukee. While some praised Braun herself more than her decision, there were some who praised the decision wholeheartedly. Those who wrote in support included Thomas Boyd, an especially vocal supporter, as well as UWM history professor Marc Levine, who called Braun’s decision “courageous and sensible.”

Besides Mone, other individuals who sent or received redacted emails to or from Braun include:

• Joely Urdan, Chief Legal Counsel
• Tom Luljak, Vice Chancellor/University Relations and Communications
• Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Michael Laliberte
• Robin Van Harpen, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administrative Affairs

Stay tuned to Media Milwaukee and PantherVision for more on this developing story.