UMass Under Fire For Record Keeping

BOSTON — The University of Massachusetts is under fire again for poor record keeping during its search for a new president.

A university spokesman on Thursday acknowledged that a secretary threw out meeting notes in the spring, but added that UMass’ general counsel defended the practice as appropriate under state public records laws.

The state attorney general’s office found in August that UMass had “wide-ranging and serious” violations of state open meeting laws when it selected Robert Caret to replace Jack Wilson.

The office ordered UMass to release “full and accurate” minutes from six search committee meetings held in closed session. UMass released 17 pages of minutes for hours of meetings on Thursday.

An attorney general’s spokesman tells The Boston Globe the office has “concerns about the sufficiency of the minutes.”