The only positive thing about Tuesday’s meeting between a collection of Iowa newspaper editors and the ISU Foundation is that it happened. It’s a good sign that Foundation executives are willing to sit down with journalists to discuss opening more of the organization’s records.

It’s just too bad it produced absolutely no progress.

The ISU Foundation, the private, non-profit corporation contracted by the university to raise private money, still maintains it is not subject to Iowa’s open records and meetings laws. It will not allow a public examination of its financial records, meaning hundreds of millions of dollars are collected for Iowa State in secret.

According to a June 12 article in the Ames Tribune, the Foundation said they will “provide contact lists and privacy guidelines to reporters statewide in hopes of improving communication between the two groups.”

First off, maybe Foundation executives are confused. Journalists and other concerned citizens aren’t troubled by the Foundation’s lack of communication, although there certainly has been one. They are troubled by the Foundation’s infuriating claims that the state’s open records and meetings laws don’t apply to them.

Iowa Code Chapter 22.2: “A government body shall not prevent the examination or copying of a public record by contracting with a nongovernment body to perform any of its duties or functions.”

The Foundation never addresses why Chapter 22.2 does not apply here because it would have to prove that raising and maintaining private funding is not a duty of the university, which would be an impossible and ridiculous claim.

Secondly, all that providing “contact lists” and “privacy guidelines” means is that the Foundation will give reporters two lists: one of phone numbers and the other of documents they will not release.

Bill Monroe, the executive director of the Iowa Newspaper Association, told the Tribune that it “makes more sense to see how far we can take this,” and that “it’s important to keep talking before taking `a more extreme route.'”

The editor’s group has basically taken this nowhere so far. Perhaps the so-called extreme routes should start looking a little less extreme.

Right now, while interim leadership is taking over for previous Foundation head Tom Mitchell, is an especially good time to look at those routes, such as a lawsuit. Who knows, maybe Interim Foundation President and Chief Executive Officer Peg Armstrong-Gustafson would simply concede the obvious and open the Foundation’s financial records to scrutiny. At the very least, a lawsuit could scare away potential CEO candidates who have a strong desire to keep the records under wraps.

Talking with Foundation executives is great. Establishing rapport is important. Opening the Foundation’s records, though, is essential to the integrity of this university. Let’s act like it.

Editorial Board: Dave Roepke, Erin Randolph, Charlie Weaver, Megan Hinds, Rachel Faber Machacha