Check the published data first
As a public university, Porter already publishes a great deal without a request: enrollment and demographics, retention and graduation rates, degrees awarded by program, the operating budget and audited financial statements, employee salary ranges, the Annual Security and Fire Safety Report, accreditation status, graduate outcomes and salary surveys, and required consumer-information disclosures. Most of it lives on the Institutional Research and the finance and transparency pages, and if what you need is there, that is faster than any request.
Making a request
Wesconsin's open-records law lets anyone request university records without stating a reason or using special wording — an email to the records custodian describing what you want with enough specificity to find it is enough. Narrower requests ("the contract with vendor X signed in 2026," not "all emails about spending") get answered faster and cheaper. You can ask to inspect records at no charge rather than receive copies.
Timing, fees and redactions
The custodian acknowledges the request promptly and responds "as soon as practicable and without delay" — simple requests in days, broad ones in weeks or longer, with status updates. Fees are limited by statute to the actual cost of locating (staff time above a threshold), copying, and any electronic-format work; you get an estimate and can prepay or narrow the request before work starts. Some content is withheld or redacted under specific exceptions — student records protected by FERPA, personal medical information, certain personnel and law-enforcement material, security plans, attorney-client and draft records, trade secrets — and the response identifies what was withheld and the legal basis.
If you disagree
You can ask the custodian to reconsider a denial or redaction, and beyond that Wesconsin law provides for review by the district attorney or the attorney general and, ultimately, the courts. Journalists and researchers with recurring needs can arrange a standing contact in University Communications or Institutional Research rather than filing repeated formal requests.
Questions?
See the full staff & office directory for any phone number or email. Because this is a fictional parody site, addresses and phone numbers are illustrative and do not reach a real university.