Iowa State fumbles with public records

The 2025 college football season is in the history books.

The season ended with last week’s national championship victory by Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza and his Indiana University Hoosiers over the University of Miami.

The season began back on August 23 in Dublin, Ireland, matching Iowa State University against Kansas State University in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic.

A lot has happened since the Cyclones’ 24-21 victory.

Iowa State President Wendy Wintersteen retired. The Iowa Board of Regents screened a bunch of candidates and hired David Cook, the North Dakota State University president, to replace her.

Cyclone coach Matt Campbell resigned after Penn State University lured him away to take over its football program. That same day, Iowa State announced he would be replaced by Jimmy Rogers from Washington State University.

Yet, in the five months since the football season started, Iowa State still has not provided me with financial records I requested on September 4 concerning the Ireland trip and the Aer Lingus game.

Similar foot-dragging by Gov. Kim Reynolds during the Covid pandemic cost Iowa taxpayers $135,000 to resolve a lawsuit that two journalists, Laura Belin and Clark Kauffman, and I brought against the governor for slow-walking public records requests.

The delay game Iowa State University officials are playing suggest they did not pay attention to, or have forgotten, the lessons of the Iowa Supreme’s Court 6-0 ruling against the governor in 2023. Delays, then and now, deny the public timely information access and ultimately prove expensive for government.

The justices underscored in their decision that Iowa’s public records law exists to promote transparency and accountability in government. The public records law itself declares that “free and open examination of public records is generally in the public interest” even if responding to requests for records may cause “inconvenience or embarrassment” to officials or others.

The court held that unreasonable delays could constitute a violation of the law because those delays undercut that longstanding public policy. The justices concluded that a failure to respond meaningfully to a records request for an extended period can amount to an “implicit refusal” to provide the requested records.

Back to my request to Iowa State University.

On September 4, 12 days after the Dublin game, I asked the university for information about the financial details of the game and the expenses the university incurred in playing on the other side of the ocean.

I asked for the game contract, documents that showed the amount the school received for playing in Dublin, and a breakdown of the amounts paid by the university, either directly or through reimbursement, for the travel, lodging and meals for football players, coaches and support staff, for other university employees, spouses and guests, and for students not on the football team, such as the band and cheerleaders.

I also asked for the numbers of students in these categories, along with the names of university employees and non-employee guests. To avoid student privacy concerns, I told university officials I did not want student names.

On October 8, the university’s public records officer informed me I first needed to pay $150 for six hours that she estimated it would take to gather and copy the materials I requested. My check went into the mail the next day.

Three-plus months later, I am still waiting. Impatiently.

Meantime, the people of Iowa are still in the dark about the Dublin trip and whether it was a money-maker or a money-loser for Iowa State University.

Beyond the dollars and cents, questions continue about who exactly received a free Dublin trip beyond the football team and coaches. Who paid their own way and who got a free pass?

The university’s delays have hidden the answers to those questions — just as the governor’s refusal to respond to public records requests during the pandemic kept the people of Iowa in the dark about a host of issues state government was dealing with as Covid raged across Iowa.

A month ago, I circled back to Iowa State’s public records officer, asking about the status of my request. “Your request is still in process and in the final review. I hope to have these to you soon,” she replied.

I cling to the hope the records will arrive before spring football practice begins in about eight weeks, with a new university president, a fresh coach, and a whole lot of Emerald Isle travelers no longer playing or coaching football for the Cyclones.