Two unions at Rutgers University have filed a legal complaint with a New Jersey state agency, alleging that university officials have refused to release comprehensive campus-emergency plans to Rutgers’s committee on health and safety training.
Amy Bahruth, a professor who serves as the committee’s co-chair, says the emergency information posted on the university’s Web site is inadequate.
“Some information is provided on the Rutgers site. However, many pieces of a comprehensive plan are missing or significantly limited,” she said in a statement issued by the Rutgers branches of the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors.
University officials have denied any wrongdoing, and say they are fully compliant with the state’s Open Public Records Act, which includes an exception for “emergency or security information or procedures … which, if disclosed, would jeopardize security of the building or facility or persons therein.” The public disclosure of the entirety of the university’s emergency-operations plan falls under this exception, Rutgers officials say, because doing so could compromise the safety of the campus. —Caitlin Moran




