On January 10, 2014 Chancellor Block issued an announcement about the recently published Statement on Principles of Scholarly Research and Public Records Requests.

Over the past several years, universities have been recipients of public records requests for access to faculty scholarly communications. The university is tasked with balancing transparency required of a public institution with the potential chilling affect on academic freedom. A joint Administrative-Senate Academic Freedom Task Force thoroughly reviewed the issue and crafted the Statement on Principles of Scholarly Research and Public Records Requests and accompanying Faculty Resource Guide for California Public Records Requests.