Case 1:10-cv-01712-RMC Document 7-5 Filed 02/16/11 Page 1 of 3

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY >

AND ETHICS IN WASHINGTON >

vs. > No. 110-01712

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, et al. >

>

I, Zakiya Smith, declare as follows:

1. I am currently employed by the U.S Department of

Education. I serve as a Special Assistant in the O~fice of

Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development (OPEPD). Our office

is located at 400 Maryland Ave. SW/ Washington/ DC,20202.

2. I have personal knowledge of the facts stated in this

declaration.

3. On November 3/ 2010/ OPEPD received a letter requesting

information pursuant to the Freedom of Information act/ 5 U.S.C. §

552/ et seq. The request for information is dated July 23, 2010.

Ex 1.
4. Ms. Anne Weismann/ Chief Counsel at Citiz~ns for

Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), fil~d the request

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for information pursuant to the Freedom of Informat~on Act (FOIA).
i

The request was assigned FOIA request No. 10-01704-F. I conducted

OPEPD's search for records responsive to this request.

5. The request for information asks for "any and all

records of or reflecting communications from April 20, 2009, to

the present to, from, and/or between officials at Efucation

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regarding for-profit education and any and all of the following"

eleven named entities and/or individuals. Ex 1. Ort October 25,

2010, Ms. Weismann clarified the scope of her request by informing

the Department that "to the extent that [her] request seeks

internal Departmental communications regarding for-profit

education, [she is] seeking only internal communic~tions

regarding any Departmental communications with the:outside

entities listed in [her] FOIA request." Ex 2.

6. OPEPD oversees planning, evaluation, policy

development, and budget activities in the Department. OPEPD

coordinates these activities with the Department's principal

offices and outside organizations such as Congress, the Office

of Management and Budget, and state education agencies. OPEPD

was involved in for-profit education/gainful employment

regulation process in these capacities.

7. I am the primary individual within OPEPD,whose

responsibilities include higher education policy ipsues, and

therefore am the only individual who would likely have records

responsive to this request. There are no other individuals in

OPEPD who are reasonably likely to have records res~onsive to this

request.

8. I maintain the types of communications so~ht by Ms.

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Weismann in her individual Departmental email accouhts. I

conducted an electronic search of my email account ~or responsive

records that contained the following search terms: :"profit,"

"Abernathy," "Nassirian," "Barmak," "frontpoint," "Stanley,"

"AACRAO," "johnette," "TICAS," "eisman," "asenio," "alliance for

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economic stability." Based on my knowledge of and familiarity

with my own records 1 I am aware that I did not rec~ive any hard-

copy correspondence that would be responsive to thts request;

therefore I did not conduct a separate search for such

!
documents. I then reviewed the results of the ele¢tronic search

to identify records responsive to the FOIA request. Pursuant to

Ms. Weismann/s October 25 1 2010 clarification l internal emails to

or from Robert Shireman that did not mention the external entities

listed above were not identified as responsive.

9. On November 22 1 2010 1 OPEPD provided the Department/s

FOIA Service Center with 42 pages responsive to thi~ ForA request.

These records were released to CREW on November 23 / .2010. All of

these pages were released in full without redaction$.

10. On January 4 1 2011 I confirmed that a sea~ch of all

locations described above using the correct spelling of the name

"Asensio" returned no additional responsive records.

I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoling is true

and correct. Executed on

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ndersecretary
t of Education