The University of Kentucky has won its lawsuit against its own student newspaper, with a judge from Lexington ruling this week that the school was right to withhold documents about a sexual assault case involving a former professor.

Fayette Circuit Court Judge Thomas Clark ruled that the investigative documents the Kentucky Kernel, UK’s student newspaper, requested last year count as educational records under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law designed to protect students’ privacy. He also decided the records “cannot reasonably be redacted to support the privacy rights” of the students involved, especially given the small size of their particular academic program.

“For UK, this legal process has always been about one primary goal – preserving the right of a victim survivor to determine how, when, or even if to tell her story,” UK President Eli Capilouto said Tuesday in an emailed statement. “We stand with survivors and we believe strongly that federal and state laws protect their right to privacy. Without privacy, we know victim survivors will not come forward to report.”

But the case isn’t over. Attorney Tom Miller, who has been representing the Kernel, said the newspaper will appeal Clark’s decision.

“It’ll make the universities immune from disclosing information about professors that are involved in bad acts,” Miller said of the ruling. “I don’t see it as a victory at all for the students.”

UK’s battle with the Kernel began last year when the newspaper sought records related to James Harwood, an associate professor who resigned as part of a settlement agreement. Harwood was accused of sexual assault by two students. Harwood denied the accusations.

UK withheld some documents from the Kernel. But Attorney General Andy Beshear decided the university, which refused to allow his office to confidentially inspect those records, had violated Kentucky’s open records law. To appeal Beshear’s decision, the university couldn’t directly sue him. So it sued the Kernel instead, sparking tempers on and off campus.

Over a dozen members of the school’s journalism faculty sent Capilouto a critical letter urging him to drop the lawsuit. The situation attracted national attention, and some people donated money to help the Kernel mount a legal defense.

This week, Clark – who was able to review the records at the heart of this lawsuit – ordered that Beshear’s open records decision be reversed.

“Well, I’m grateful, but it’s hardly a victory,” Capilouto said in a video the university released Tuesday. The school must reduce the number of people who are sexually assaulted on campus, he said.

Back in Fayette Circuit Court, Beshear is still challenging UK’s decision to deny his office’s request to see the Harwood documents.

“The statutory power of the Attorney General to confidentially review such documents is necessary to avoid turning Kentucky’s Open Records Act into a ‘trust me’ law,” Beshear said in an emailed statement.