"Four years ago, Nicole Ares, a former Herald reporter and current digital marketing strategist for C2 Strategic Communications in Louisville, wrote 'In The Dark'— a story that would later win her multiple state and national journalism awards.

"Western Kentucky University denied records requested by the Herald in 2016 while Nicole Ares was reporting a sexual misconduct story. [As a result of the Kentucky Supreme Court opinion in University of Kentucky v The Kernel Press, Inc, d/b/a as The Kentucky Kernel,] the university will release the records.

"'In The Dark' introduced readers to a world of misconduct and hidden Title IX records among multiple Kentucky universities, including WKU. Ares, a senior at the time, requested records from all state universities in Kentucky. She went through thousands of pages of court documents and records to put together the story.

"'It feels good,' Ares said. 'I know this is going to be a precedent now for open records of this nature moving forward and that universities can't hide these types of things.'"