A bill in the Iowa Senate could impact the confidentiality of records at educational institutions in Iowa governed by the Board of Regents.

Senate File 2284 would allow regent universities to keep certain files confidential.

Proprietary intellectual property owned or held under contractual agreements by the regents or by an institution of higher education under the board’s control could be kept confidential, according to the legislation.

Josh Lehman, a spokesperson for the regents, discussed impacts of the bill.

“The purpose is to amend Iowa’s confidential record law to allow proprietary intellectual property owned or held under contractual agreements by the Board of Regents or any of its institutions to be considered confidential records,” Lehman said.

Iowa State, along with the University of Iowa and the University of Northern Iowa would all be affected if the bill is enacted.

If a company were to do business with a regent university, the files and records that are associated with the company and the university may be kept confidential.

“These proposed open records changes have to do with outside private companies that come in to do business with the University of Iowa, Iowa State University or the University of Northern Iowa,” Lehman said.

Ultimately, students would not have access to records that are evidence of business that is done with a private company. Regardless of if they immediately impact students, they would not have access to them.

Lehman said students at regent universities have little to worry about, saying, “this doesn’t affect students.” 

Any information that could impact students will be kept confidential, which could allow the university to see benefits.

Lehman said the bill could have some benefits for outside companies.

“These changes would protect any proprietary information those outside companies have during those business dealings, by keeping that proprietary information confidential,” Lehman said.

Along with confidential information, the bill also could affect community health centers, such as the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

It could prevent the disclosure of information about “patient care quality,” “process improvement initiatives in a meeting of a public hospital,” or “marketing and pricing strategies” or similar proprietary information where public disclosure would harm a hospital’s “competitive position when no public purpose would be served by public disclosure.”