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[Note: This material is copyright by the Press-Citizen, and is reproduced here as a matter of "fair use" for non-commercial, educational purposes only. Any other use may require the prior approval of the Iowa City Press-Citizen.]

Regents President Michael Gartner announced the decision to the board in an e-mail Friday.

"We must, of course, communicate between meetings, and e-mail is the best way," he said in the e-mail. "But we also must be transparent. There is a way to both use e-mail and to be transparent, and as of today I am asking (Regents executive director) Gary Steinke to implement it."

Gartner told the Press-Citizen he considered the needs of the public and the board when making the decision. The regents rely on e-mail to communicate between their six meetings a year, and the public needs the board to be as transparent as possible.

"It occurred to me that the easiest way would be to just put (e-mails) on the Web site," he said. "It struck me as a good thing."

Gartner said Steinke will create an "e-mail file" on the regents' Web site that is open to the public. Anytime five or more regents communicate by e-mail, Steinke will move a copy into the public file. Also, any time Steinke or anyone else at the board office sends an e-mail to the board, it also will be posted.

Regents also have the option to submit e-mails not sent to five or more members. Gartner said he thought the board would utilize that option.

Before any e-mail is posted, however, the board's counsel will review it and edit it, if necessary. Gartner said in the message that the only elements taken out of e-mails would be things such as personal information and conference call codes.

"I believe that this is good public policy, of course, and I also believe it will relieve us of the time-consuming chores we've all dealt with recently in replying to scores of open-records requests," Gartner said.

Shelly Kurtz, University of Iowa Faculty Senate president, said he thought the policy change was evidence that the regents have "rethought the way they do business." Kurtz has been a leading critic of the board's use of e-mail communication, especially following the failed search for a new president.

He said he thought the move was a good first step but needed to be expanded to make it mandatory that all e-mails regarding policy issues be posted online, regardless of the number of regents communicating.

"To me, what they were doing in the past violated the spirit of the open records law, and now, so would two-on-two e-mails between regents that discuss policy issues," Kurtz said.