EAB financial aid optimization documents
It is a clone of this request.
| Submitted | Dec. 7, 2021 |
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Communications
From: Todd Feathers
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Montana Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
1) All financial aid descriptive analyses performed by EAB and provided to the university as described on page 46 of the attached contract for EAB's financial aid optimization services.
2) All aggregated data analysis reports or documents provided to the university by EAB as described on page 49 of the attached contract.
3) Documentation of the financial aid optimization statistical model built for the university by EAB, described on page 46 of the attached contract. This should include any documents describing the variables incorporated into the model(s) and how those variables are weighted, the model(s)' accuracy metrics (such as AUC), the model(s)' parameters, the machine learning techniques employed, and any validation or disparate impact analyses performed.
4) A de-identified copy of the admissions and financial aid data the university provided to EAB in order for EAB to design its financial aid optimization model, as described on page 46 of the attached contract. Please note, I am not asking for any personally identifiable information about students. Rather, I'm asking for a copy of the dataset that excludes identifiable information such as student names and street addresses. This can easily be done by removing those columns from the spreadsheet.
I ask that all fees be waived as I am a journalist and intend to use the requested records to publish articles in the public interest. In the event you choose to impose fees, I request a detailed breakdown of the fees, including the hourly wage of each employee involved and an explanation justifying the employee hours required to fulfill the request.
Should you choose to reject this request or redact portions of it, I ask that you provide a detailed breakdown of the statutory exemptions and associated case law underlying your decision to withhold each/any portions from public review.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days.
Sincerely,
Todd Feathers
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Montana Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 7, 2021. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Todd Feathers
Hello,
I'm following up to confirm that you've received this request. Thank you!
Todd
From: Todd Feathers
Hello Kellie,
I'm following up on the public records request (copied below) I submitted to the university on Dec. 7. I may have sent it to the wrong person, so I just want to make sure you folks got it and it's being processed.
Thank you very much for the help!
------
To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Montana Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
1) All financial aid descriptive analyses performed by EAB and provided to the university as described on page 46 of the attached contract for EAB's financial aid optimization services.
2) All aggregated data analysis reports or documents provided to the university by EAB as described on page 49 of the attached contract.
3) Documentation of the financial aid optimization statistical model built for the university by EAB, described on page 46 of the attached contract. This should include any documents describing the variables incorporated into the model(s) and how those variables are weighted, the model(s)' accuracy metrics (such as AUC), the model(s)' parameters, the machine learning techniques employed, and any validation or disparate impact analyses performed.
4) A de-identified copy of the admissions and financial aid data the university provided to EAB in order for EAB to design its financial aid optimization model, as described on page 46 of the attached contract. Please note, I am not asking for any personally identifiable information about students. Rather, I'm asking for a copy of the dataset that excludes identifiable information such as student names and street addresses. This can easily be done by removing those columns from the spreadsheet.
I ask that all fees be waived as I am a journalist and intend to use the requested records to publish articles in the public interest. In the event you choose to impose fees, I request a detailed breakdown of the fees, including the hourly wage of each employee involved and an explanation justifying the employee hours required to fulfill the request.
Should you choose to reject this request or redact portions of it, I ask that you provide a detailed breakdown of the statutory exemptions and associated case law underlying your decision to withhold each/any portions from public review.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 business days.
Sincerely,
Todd Feathers
From: Montana State University
Todd,
I’m not sure where this was sent previously, but I am confirming that I have received it now and will be getting the process started.
Kellie
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From: Todd Feathers
Great, thank you so much! Definitely my mistake before.
Todd
From: Montana State University
Todd,
I am not finding a contract for the scope of services you reference with EAB. Can you provide me the full contract, or a contract number that might help me locate this?
Kellie
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From: Todd Feathers
Hi Kellie,
The scope of services I provided is not specific to a Montana State contract. I included it to provide more context for the request.
Appreciate the help!
Todd
From: Montana State University
Todd,
I appreciate that, but so far I haven’t identified anyone who has these records. If I can track down the contract, then I can figure out where they would be, or if we even have them. At this point, I’m not even sure that MSU has contracted with EAB for these services.
Kellie
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From: Todd Feathers
Hi Kellie,
Got it. It may be that I'm mistaken and MSU hasn't used EAB's financial aid optimization services. If that's the case, my apologies and thank you very much for the help!
Todd
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Montana Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 7, 2021. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Montana State University
Todd,
I was able to locate the contracts and some of the documents you request below. However, after reviewing the reports and the purpose for which the university uses the reports, I have determined that these documents are protected trade secrets that are exempt from public disclosure under MCA 30-14-402<https://leg.mt.gov/bills/mca/title_0300/chapter_0140/part_0040/section_0020/0300-0140-0040-0020.html>.
Specifically, the reports are an integral part of our recruiting process that informs decision making on scholarships and tuition discounts. Should these plans be made known to competitors, it would significantly damage the value of the plan and the university’s recruitment strategy.
Since I do not know the purpose of your request, I cannot offer any alternative information. If you would like to discuss the purpose of the request, there may be other information that I can provide to assist your efforts.
Kellie
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From: Todd Feathers
Hello Kellie,
Thank you very much for your help on this.
I'd like to ask for a bit of clarification on your response.
The statute you cited is part of the Montana Uniform Trade Secrets Act, not the Montana Public Records Act, which governs what can be withheld and what must be disclosed in response to a public record. The Uniform Trade Secrets Act also does not extend trade secrets protection to government agencies, which because of their public nature cannot have trade secrets.
There is no exception for "trade secrets" in Montana public records law that would cover these documents. In Great Falls Tribune v. Montana Public Service Commission, the Montana Supreme Court ruled that the privacy exception to the public's right to know does not extend to non-human entities such as corporations, and cannot serve as a basis for protecting trade secrets and other confidential proprietary information of non-human entities.
I'd like to ask you to reconsider your decision, as these documents are definitely a matter of public record.
Thank you,
Todd
From: Montana State University
Todd,
Respectfully, I disagree with your interpretation of Great Falls Tribune v. Montana Public Service Commission. Although the court did rule that the privacy right does not extend to non-human entities, it actually specifically reserved the right, if not the obligation, for government agencies to protect trade secrets. The relevant portion of the discussion is copied below for your reference:
¶ 61 In cases where a claimant seeks statutory protection from public disclosure under Montana's Uniform Trade Secrets Act, the claimant's efforts to maintain the information's secrecy must be "reasonable under the circumstances." Section 30-14-402(4)(b), MCA. What is reasonable under the circumstances should be entirely different in the context of a utility filing contracts with an agency, such as the PSC, as compared to an exchange of information between private parties. In other words, one might expect a more encompassing definition of a trade secret in litigation between private parties than would be recognized when a utility files a document with the PSC. Certainly the fact that the contracts, although private, were negotiated for the benefit of the public must be taken into consideration.
¶ 62 If after considering all of the circumstances, the information is determined by a governmental agency or reviewing authority to qualify as a property right in the form of a "trade secret" which warrants due process protections, secrecy can be preserved by the agency through:
reasonable means, which may include granting protective orders in connection with discovery proceedings, holding in-camera hearings, sealing the records of the action, and ordering any person involved in the litigation not to disclose an alleged trade secret without prior court approval.
Section 30-14-406, MCA (emphasis added). While this particular statute is applicable to court actions involving claims of wrongful appropriation of trade secrets under Montana's Uniform Trade Secrets Act by non-governmental entities, the same or similarly reasonable means are useful and available to the PSC in protecting property rights comprised of trade secrets in the process of fulfilling its regulatory duties over public service providers.(emphasis added)
That being said, I have scheduled some meetings to discuss this issue further with our stakeholders, and will be in contact again shortly.
Kellie
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From: Todd Feathers
Thank you very much, Kellie, I really do appreciate your extra work on this.
Best,
Todd
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Montana Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 7, 2021. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Montana Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 7, 2021. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Montana Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 7, 2021. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Montana State University
Todd,
Can you provide me some more information on the purpose of your request? As indicated below, when dealing with proprietary information we are obligated to protect that information through mechanisms such as a protective order etc. My first effort is to redact the minimum amount possible, but without knowing what your interest is in the document it is difficult to make some determinations.
As an example, you may have followed the Krakauer litigation in Montana. In that case, John Krakauer made a request for student records and named the student. Throughout the litigation it became clear that the public interest he was looking at was how the Commissioner of Higher education handled the case. Had the request initially asked for the outcomes of appeals, then the records could have been disclosed with the student names redacted and the public interest satisfied. However, because the records were requested by the student name, there was no way to adequately protect the student’s privacy interest.
I acknowledge that the law has no requirement that you tell me the purpose of your request. But it makes it a lot easier for me to conduct the balancing tests if I have information on both sides of the balance. If I have two pieces of information and either one on its own is not proprietary, but the two together are, then knowing which one is relevant to you helps me to better meet your request.
Kellie
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From: Todd Feathers
Hi Kellie,
Thank you very much for your note. I'm happy to explain a bit more about my intentions for the records:
I DO NOT intend to use the requested records to ascertain or publish information about any particular student or group of students. My goal is to better understand how enrollment management and financial aid optimization algorithms may be affecting student bodies writ large. For example, do the algorithms suggest recruiting only wealthy, 4.0 students (unlikely)? Do they display preferences for certain types of students (i.e., those from urban or rural areas, or those who plan to study chemistry rather than French? Have the algorithms been achieving their goal of boosting tuition revenue without sacrificing student quality?
This is part of a larger research project looking at EAB's algorithms, and those sold by its competitors, at schools across the country.
Hope that helps!
Todd
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Montana Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 7, 2021. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Muckrock Staff
To Whom It May Concern:
I wanted to follow up on the following Montana Freedom of Information Act request, copied below, and originally submitted on Dec. 7, 2021. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response.
Thanks for your help, and let me know if further clarification is needed.
From: Montana State University
Todd,
Please find the information responsive to questions 1 & 2*, with redactions that I have determined are necessary for protection of EAB trade secrets. Specifically, I have removed information that would allow you to calculate the recommended financial aid awards and the academic ranking points structure. MSU's plan does not offer different aid based on a student's intended major nor their zip-code.
I am again denying your request for information items 3 & 4. That information goes directly to EAB's methodology, which is afforded trade secret protection under Montana law.
I would also point you to MSU's Office of Planning and Analysis, montana.edu/opa for information relevant to your student demographics questions. There you can see historical trends regarding the academic profile and percentage of Pell-eligible students that will also inform your research.
Kellie Peterson
*I was not able to upload the documents in a folder, so the first 6 are responsive to question 1, and the remaining 6 are in response to question 2.
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