{"id":4329,"date":"2025-02-18T19:43:55","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T19:43:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/brand-resources\/?page_id=4329"},"modified":"2026-06-12T15:11:51","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T15:11:51","slug":"maryland-public-information-act-mpia","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/brand-resources\/maryland-public-information-act-mpia\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\t\t\t

The Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) provides that all persons are entitled to have access to disclosable public records held by state agencies, subject to certain statutory exceptions. The MPIA does not require creation of new records or analysis of data; though information that is stored in an electronic database can be queried to produce specific subsets of information, with some limitations under the law.<\/p>\n

For Requestors<\/strong><\/h2>\n

To submit a request to St. Mary’s College of Maryland, please forward your inquiry via electronic mail to the College\u2019s MPIA representative:<\/p>\n

Email:<\/strong> Gretchen Phillips (gdphillips@smcm.edu<\/a>)
\nMail:<\/strong> MPIA Representative, St. Mary\u2019s College of Maryland
\nAttention: Gretchen Phillips
\n47645 College Drive
\nSt. Mary\u2019s City, MD 20686<\/p>\n

Requests sent to other departments\/individuals will delay processing.<\/p>\n

The College will acknowledge your request within 10 business days.<\/p>\n

Section \u00a7 4-206 of the MPIA provides that, after the first two hours, reasonable fees may be charged for the search, preparation and production of public records. The College will provide an estimate of costs if fees are applicable. Estimated fees are payable prior to the commencement of work to fulfill a request.<\/p>\n

For the College Community<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) is the state equivalent to the federal government\u2019s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Regardless of the language used, treat requests for public information per the policies on this page.<\/p>\n

MPIA Requests – If a requester contacts you directly asking how to seek records, please direct the interested party to this webpage.<\/p>\n

If you receive a request for records, whether by e-mail or letter, please immediately forward the request to Communications Specialist, gdphillips@smcm.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Once the MPIA representative receives the request, they will work with the appropriate departments to gather potentially responsive records. Please do not respond to the requestor on your own. The MPIA representative is familiar with the statutory timelines and exemptions to consider and consults with the College\u2019s legal counsel to ensure appropriate handling of these requests.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Maryland Public Information Act (MPIA) provides that all persons are entitled to have access to disclosable public records held by state agencies, subject to certain statutory exceptions. The MPIA does not require creation of new records or analysis of data; though information that is stored in an electronic database can be queried to produce […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":245,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4329","page","type-page","status-publish","entry"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/brand-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/brand-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/brand-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/brand-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/245"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/brand-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4329"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/brand-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4727,"href":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/brand-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4329\/revisions\/4727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smcm.edu\/brand-resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}