Updated at midnight CST Feb. 5

The Iowa Supreme Court ruled Friday that the ISU Foundation’s records are subject to Iowa’s open-records laws.

The court remanded the case to a lower court, where contention and litigation appear to be brewing.

Arlen Nichols, one of the two people who had sued the Board of Regents and the ISU Foundation to open the records, said that he first became interested in reviewing the ISU Foundation’s records when he read about the foundation’s sale of a farm that had been donated by the estate of Marie Powers in 1996. Nichols said that the farm had been sold against her wishes.

Nichols said that he was “elated” after Friday’s ruling.

“They should be happy at Iowa State, Iowa, and UNI too, now that people know that their money is going exactly where the donor wants,” he said.

Nichols’ longtime attorney is Thomas Hanson.

“We interpret this as a victory,” Hanson said. “There are some specific issues that will have to be dealt with by the district court, but it was my impression under this case that [we] never asked for things which were specifically confidential,” he said.

Mark McCormick, the attorney for the ISU Foundation, was not available for comment.

Bill Kunerth, professor emeritus of journalism and communication, was involved in the early work and research with the plaintiffs.

“I think it was a refreshing affirmation of the importance of openness in government, especially public universities,” he said.

“Throughout this whole fight, the foundation’s only real reason for keeping records secret is that it would invade the privacy of the donors. It [might] chill prospective donors from making donations because their records may be made public.

“We made very clear from the outset that we were not interested in information from donors who wished to remain anonymous,” he said. “I think that should be respected.”

Susan Shullaw, vice president of communications and campaign support at the University of Iowa, said there were reasons that some donors choose to remain private.

“Hypothetically, in the last presidential election, if you grew up in a family of Bush supporters, and you wanted to make a contribution to the Dean campaign, you might want … to give anonymously.”

ISU President Gregory Geoffroy said that he hoped the court’s ruling would not decrease giving to the university.

“The Foundation is extremely important to Iowa State because they raise private funds to provide scholarships and support for faculty members,” he said. “It’s important to me that the fund-raising efforts of the foundation are not in any way harmed by the need to satisfy the provisions of the open records.

“I have a very high confidence in the work of the foundation, the employees there, and especially their very high level of professionalism and integrity,” Geoffroy said. “They do a great service for students and the university.”

According to the ISU Foundation Web site, private fund raising this year has exceeded last year’s figures by nearly 71 percent. There are 35,158 donors who have committed a total of $43.9 million to the foundation.

“It’s been a long haul,” said Mark Gannon, one of the plaintiffs. “First Marie Powers, and the lawsuit and first court ruling, and now this ruling here. It’s been like David and Goliath.

“I’m fearful that they might try some tactic to hide what the court has ruled as open records,” Gannon said. “The [foundation] can handle any situation … they can use it to say, ‘Look, this is a safeguard for the funds to make sure they’re not misused,’ but it’s about how they want to handle their public relations on it.”

A statement the ISU Foundation released Friday says that it “will continue to view all donor records as confidential information.”

Jason Menke, the foundation’s assistant director of communications, said that fund-raising work will continue, but he did not comment about the case.

“We remain upbeat in the faith that the university’s donors have shown in Iowa State, and we’ll continue to do our best,” he said.