The Missouri Supreme Court decided it will not hear a case concerning the release of University of Missouri course syllabi to The National Council on Teacher Quality.
The NCTQ is working on a project that requires evaluation of course syllabi to examine the lecture topics discussed, the textbooks used and the assignments students are given.
NCTQ requested that the university provide course syllabi to the council under Missouri’s Sunshine Law, which states that “meetings, records, votes, actions and deliberations of public governmental bodies to be open to the public unless otherwise provided by law.”
After the university system declined the request it was brought to the district court. The court then ruled in favor of the university stating that “faculty members hold copyright ownership in their syllabi,” which protects them under the Federal Copyright Act. That decision was then upheld in an appeals court before the Missouri Supreme court declined to accept the case.
NCTQ President Kate Walsh is disappointed in the ruling, saying that the organization had similar cases in 8 other states and received rulings in their favor in those states.
“What this means more broadly,” Walsh said. “Is that anytime a citizen in Missouri wants to have access to materials the organization or entity simply has to say you know what the materials are copyrighted, we don’t have to give them to you.”
The NCTQ will still be able to view the course syllabi, but they will need to travel from Washington D.C. to Columbia to do so. This process would require a team of 25 to 30 experts from NCTQ to make the trip.
“It’s very comprehensive,” Walsh said. “Simply saying well you can come to our campus and look at these syllabi may sound like it’s not that big of deal, but it’s an expensive proposition.”
Walsh says that they are hopeful that the Missouri Legislature will take a look at the law and what it will take to improve it.
