Sunshine laws arose from public concern over how public officials make decisions. Every state has sunshine laws, and in every case those laws have been applied to public higher education systems and institutions. Operationally, they serve a variety of goals. These include helping to ensure that public colleges and universities are pursuing effectiveness and efficiency, academic honesty, fiscal soundness, financial stewardship, and both procedural and outcome equity in decision making. Open-meeting and records laws influence virtually every major area of campus functioning. The authors describe the results of a survey they conducted in 2003 which confirm that the impact of sunshine laws on public higher education institutions is pervasive, influencing not only the context in which campuses make decisions but also the content of those decisions. The authors collected data in six states and conducted over 90 interviews with board members, presidents, chancellors, administrators, legislators, journalists, and university attorney. Emerging electronic communication devices have created new ambiguities as e-mail, teleconferencing, videoconferencing, and other sophisticated communications media have blurred the meaning of what constitutes a public "meeting"or "record." The authors detail seventeen key observations gleaned from their examination of documents and interviews. They conclude that openness remains essential while our existing legal and organizational approaches for achieving it remain imperfect. [This article is condensed from AGB Public Policy Paper 04-01, "Governing in the Sunshine: Open Meetings, Open Records, and Effective Governance in Public Higher Education," (ED486394) published in April 2004.]