UWF / Transparency
UWF Stonewalls Records Request—Board Packet Hidden Behind Campus Visit
The university’s Board of Trustees meets April 23. I asked for the agenda packet. UWF told me to drive to campus.
Yesterday, I requested the supporting documents for the April 23 agenda of the University of West Florida Board of Trustees. In the past, those documents were posted publicly on the UWF website. That policy has changed since Manny Diaz Jr. moved from interim president to the full presidency.
Items not available online include:
- Revisions to UWF/REG-2.028, University Holidays
- Documentation regarding a proposed $2 per credit hour increase in the student athletic fee to support the transition to Division I athletics
- Amendment of University Policy BOT-12.02, Board of Trustees Public Comment Policy
- The UWF 2026 Accountability Plan
- President’s 2025–2026 Self-Evaluation
My request was straightforward:
“Please send me the complete agenda packet, with all supporting documents, that has been, or will be given, to the UWF Board of Trustees for their board meeting on April 23.”
UWF refused to send the information electronically—something that could have been done easily. At 5:47 p.m. yesterday, I received this reply from Kristie Johnson, Board of Trustees Liaison:
“Thank you for contacting the Board of Trustees Office. A printed copy of the full agenda package can be viewed in the Office of the General Counsel, 11000 University Parkway, Building 10, Suite 125 (the bottom floor).”
— Kristie Johnson, Board of Trustees Liaison, Office of the President, University of West Florida
In other words: drive to campus.
A UWF alum also reached out directly to President Diaz and shared his email with me:
Good evening and happy Monday, President Diaz,
I have been wanting to reach out but struggling to find the words, but this article from Mr. Rick Outzen from today succinctly addresses many of my concerns: https://ricksblog.biz/diaz-fog-covers-up-uwf-changes/
President Diaz, in public forums, you maintain that transparency and communication is a priority for you and your leadership style. However, ever since the presidential search that concluded with your appointment failed to deliver more than one candidate for public consideration, I feel that UWF leadership is becoming increasingly opaque and unapproachable.
Would you or a member of your cabinet be able to share any of the documents related to the vote to move to Division I athletics? Furthermore, much of the greater Pensacola community would like more information about the upcoming logo changes and the decision-making process involved in this transition, if any analyses or invoices from the redesign are available.
I appreciate any time and attention you can spare for these concerns. I know that it is an exciting time with commencement quickly approaching. I hope you are enjoying the end of this academic year and all the excitement it has to offer our community.
Thank you very much for your time and service, and Go Argos.
— UWF Alumni Email to President Diaz
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Thanks for pushing this! Diaz and the DeSantis trustees are hiding something, incompetent, or both. Hopefully Floridians will start to see just how much their state has been hijacked by self-aggrandizing pols and radical ideologues.
Thank you, Rick, for refusing to participate in the widespread–and tragic–shift among media outlets to normalize and whitewash such behavior, couching appeasement and abnegation as “objectivity.”
While the tide is tipping nationwide, in the state of Florida, and in the Panhandle, with citizens finally waking up to what is actually being visited on them by the powers that be, there is no indication that anyone in the governor’s administration has gotten those memos. We are lucky to have you to keep providing them to Diaz and his UWF place-sitting yes people brigade.