I wonder how much of that is due to the fact that people actively watch and can FOIA public organizations* for things like this and public orgs (depending on the locale) may have to report to the governor on their diversity in [hiring, contracting, etc.] A private institution kind of by definition isn't subject to this, whereas any given ~taxpayer~ with an axe to grind can wield FOIA like a cudgel and bury an institution under either having to scramble to find responses within a week, or get a lawyer to explain why they aren't and spend forever fighting it in court.
* Sunshine laws are incredibly important and valuable, but in my own experience of eleven years of producing documents in response to sunshine-law requests, for every one genuinely public-interest request an institution receives** there are between two and six shitty ones that are clearly the product of someone's antithetical political agenda.
** Not to paint everyone of a specific political persuasion with a specific brush, but certain institutions (oh, let's say, those affiliated with education in any way, or social safety net) really do seem to get the lion's share of harassing requests. If I had a dollar for every time I have had to deal with a clearly libertarian or tea party type request, I could buy a new iMac.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2020-10-07 08:34 pm (UTC)* Sunshine laws are incredibly important and valuable, but in my own experience of eleven years of producing documents in response to sunshine-law requests, for every one genuinely public-interest request an institution receives** there are between two and six shitty ones that are clearly the product of someone's antithetical political agenda.
** Not to paint everyone of a specific political persuasion with a specific brush, but certain institutions (oh, let's say, those affiliated with education in any way, or social safety net) really do seem to get the lion's share of harassing requests. If I had a dollar for every time I have had to deal with a clearly libertarian or tea party type request, I could buy a new iMac.