Baylor has been seeking the information since last month, and in this case it was responding to a plaintiffs’ reply that argued communications with “non-party” friends should be protected. Plaintiffs’ attorney Jim Dunnam has argued that witnesses or others who communicated with the plaintiffs should be notified before their identities are disclosed.

He has criticized Baylor for behaving according to a “double standard” as it has fought against disclosure of records of current and past students not party to the Title IX case. In Tuesday’s filing, Baylor responded that it is trying to uphold FERPA, or the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which protects educational records. That law does not apply to private correspondence, the filing asserts.

In an interview Tuesday, Dunnam said student privacy is important regardless of FERPA, and he hopes the judge will find a reasonable solution.

“I think Baylor’s hypocrisy on student privacy is astounding,” Dunnam said. “The issue is the privacy rights of these students. … Baylor is very cavalier about their privacy rights.”

He said the “non-party” individuals in question are in many cases fellow rape survivors, which makes privacy even more important.