A bill in the Virginia House of Delegates that could grant greater privacy to University donors has been tabled until next week following concerns about anonymous donations.
If passed, the bill would allow the University to keep personal information about donors private -- including marital status, Social Security numbers and e-mail addresses -- that, at the moment, is public information, said Robert Sweeney, senior vice president for development and public affairs.
"U.Va., unlike other [public and private] universities in the commonwealth, has all of its donor records in the University database as opposed to in a private foundation," Sweeney said. "Out of a very large database, the University is asking that selective pieces of information be exempted from Freedom of Information [Act] requests. The only things we wouldn't want to be open are things that are private."
The bill also would allow those who donate to the University to do so anonymously.
According to the bill's sponsor, Del. Glenn Oder, R-Newport News, this legislation would allow the University to gain equal footing with other universities such as Virginia Tech that have better protected donor information regulations. Sweeney also noted that the bill would support the wishes of some donors who prefer to give anonymously.
"The University believes that there are certain donors who, for a variety of very special reasons, would rather have their giving remain anonymous," Sweeney said. "This comes to about one percent of the donors, [and] we believe that to respect the donors' privacy, we are requesting that those donors who wished to remain anonymous would be exempted from FOIA requests."
Groups opposed to the bill -- such as the Virginia Press Association and the Virginia Coalition for Open Government -- expressed concern about this clause of the legislation.
"Our general thought is that large donations have the potential to influence the operations of the University, and shielding anonymous donors eliminates the mechanisms for monitoring conflicts of interest and accountability in general," said Megan Rhyne, associate director for the Virginia Coalition for Open Government. Rhyne added that allowing anonymous donations may make it more difficult to make connections between large donors and awards given by the University.
Sweeney said some donors wish to remain anonymous because they may be exposed to a "barrage of solicitations based on their wealth," adding that the University wants to keep the option for anonymous donations open.
"What [the bill] would do, is it would allow us to continue to provide our prospective donors with the comfort that their private information can be maintained privately," he said.
Following concern from a delegate regarding the anonymity provision, the bill has been removed from subcommittee discussion until next week, according to Sweeney. The delay, he said, is intended to "give all interested parties a little more time to talk about it."
Rhyne declined to comment about specific alterations to the bill that the VCOG is seeking.
Sweeney said the University recognizes and has addressed concerns regarding the bill.
"We've come to know that the concerns expressed by the delegate are legitimate about whether we have the safeguards in place so that anonymous donors could not have undue influence on the University, and we believe we do have those safeguards in place," he said.
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