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We’re thrilled to say that, in its debut year, Why Don't We Know walked away with top honors in the annual Educational Writers Association national journalism awards.  Our podcast was recognized with first place in the Public Service category, which according to the EWA, “recognizes journalism that makes a substantive

Two of the public universities that we highlighted in our episodes about secrecy in Title IX investigations continue to make bad headlines about their handling of major cases. In what the Lansing State Journal called a “scathing report,” the Michigan Attorney General’s office said the university is a place

In season 1, we asked about 100 public universities for their data on concussions, only to discover that many schools are not keep track of it, making it difficult to know if college sports are truly getting safer. Then a global pandemic struck, which got us wondering: Are those

Despite the pandemic and social distancing restrictions, two U.S. college students died this semester in hazing-related incidents that have left the public with plenty of unanswered questions. In Season 1, Episode 4 of Why Don’t We Know, we looked at how misconduct within Greek life is often handled secretly at universities,

The Kentucky Supreme Court has ruled in favor of student journalists, forcing the University of Kentucky to turn over documents related to sexual misconduct allegations against professors. The university had tried to fight the release, citing student privacy laws. But after a four-year legal battle, the court ruled on

If the NCAA tournament were based on COVID19 transparency, who would win Monday night? Why Don't We Know reporter Noah Ram dove into the data after the final four games were played and came up with a clear winner.

The Washington Post is reporting that Big Ten university leaders used a third-party “portal” to keep secret what would otherwise be public communications about whether the football season should resume.  As Why Don’t We Know reported in Season 1, Episode 6, these portals are becoming increasingly more popular among

Yet another public university is trying to silence students who work in campus housing from speaking out about their university's handling of COVID-19 cases, even though both students and public employees have substantial First Amendment protection to speak about issues of public concern. The Bottom Line, the student newspaper at Frostburg State University,

All across the country we're seeing government offices of all shapes and sizes use the pandemic as an excuse not to respond to open records requests in a timely manner. We discuss this at length in this week's bonus episode. This example came across our desks after production for

October 1, 2020 In our first WDWK episode "EXTRA," we explored how many public universities unconstitutionally gag student residents assistants from speaking to the media without first getting permission.  A new example of that emerged this week at Cal Poly, where a floor of a residence hall