VALDOSTA — A Valdosta State University professor is disputing the amount of money the university has quoted him for satisfying recent open records requests.

Myron Faircloth, assistant professor of nursing, said he asked VSU in February for three years worth of records referencing him in an attempt to discover any negative comments made about him by fellow faculty members. 

VSU said the request would cost Faircloth $7,000 to fulfill.

Faircloth then narrowed his dates for requested documents down to just July 1-Dec. 31, 2016 and Feb. 21 and 28, 2017, in a second request submitted at the end of March.

VSU said the second request would cost $1,000.

Faircloth said he’s frustrated by the how high the cost estimates were for his first two requests, especially since the bulk of the expense came not from retrieval costs but from redaction and legal review fees.

The university said the review and redaction is necessary to remove legally protected personnel or student information from the records Faircloth is requesting.

Faircloth filed a third and even narrower request April 3 in an attempt to further lower the charge.

VSU said it has been working with Faircloth to narrow his request, which will drop the related expenses.

“We are evaluating his newly revised request and will be able to supply the relevant information to him at a much reduced cost,” VSU said in a statement April 4.