THE UNIVERSITY is rife with paradoxes, not the least of which is its policy on e-mail. Before every first year arrives at the University, he or she has almost always completed the administration's test on the "Responsible Computing Handbook for Students" and so received his or her e-mail account. How closely, though, have that handbook and its policies been examined? After all, the test, or at least figuring out what the administration wants you to say, is not difficult.
A closer look at the handbook shows again and again the administration's ability to access those e-mail accounts and to make use of anything found within at will despite also recognizing e-mail as property. More importantly, the University's policy towards its employees and the faculty shows where it would like to go with that access -- essentially all-out monitoring and censorship. Obviously, this violates the very nature of the University as a bastion for freedom, not to mention several Constitutional principles and federal property laws.
In its continual bid to maintain control over the student population, the University administration often infringes on the rights of the students, and in the case of e-mail it has laid significant groundwork. The University can access e-mail accounts at will and use the contents as part of investigations "by the University's student Honor Committee or Judiciary Committee or by faculty conducting individual student-academic-issue investigations," according to ITC policy since 2001. This is an interesting ambiguity from the "Responsible Computing Handbook," in which the University claims that "it does not routinely examine or monitor such content."
Though claiming not to "routinely" monitor content of e-mail, the University never actually denies its right to do so. In fact, throughout the handbook the University claims again and again its right to access e-mail at will due to its ownership of the system's hardware. In the very same section that contains the routine monitoring statement, the handbook states that "University procedures allow ITC's system administrators to view and modify any files, including e-mail messages, in the course of diagnosing or resolving system problems and maintaining system integrity." Also, "if an administrator comes across information that indicates illegal activity he or she is required to report the discovery."
Basically, ITC can access anything it wants and must report any and all information that could be perceived as breaking federal, state or University law or policy. It is easy for them to justify using such evidence, because how could anything involving the system not be in some way related to "maintaining integrity?"
A clearer look at where the University would like to go with this access is its policy towards employees and faculty. To begin with, it is outright called the "Policy on Monitoring/Review of Employee Electronic Communications or Files," and in the policy the University openly admits to "routine monitoring or examination of employee electronic communications or files" -- a direct contrast to that supposedly in effect with students. The system used by faculty and employees is exactly the same as that used by students, however, and those spheres collide constantly. Thus, all that is stopping the University from monitoring students is a vague and contradictory policy.
This situation blatantly breaks the spirit of the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of unlawful search and seizure of private property without a warrant, as well as federal law against theft or illegal opening or use of mail. The University emphasizes its ownership of the system as justification, but the University is a public institution owned by the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia, many of us being such citizens. The proverbial last straw for the University's claims, however, is that the Responsible Computing Handbook clearly recognizes e-mail as property, stating that "your stored e-mail is a part of your personal effects and records that will be given to your executor."
This paradox that is the University's policy on e-mail allows it to claim to uphold freedom yet at the same time to use anything you say against you in a University investigation or trial. University policy claims not to routinely monitor e-mail, yet it leaves numerous loopholes to allow virtually unlimited access. Though the University owns the system hardware, by recognizing e-mail as property they are bound to obtain a search warrant before accessing it. The University's current unlimited access to student and staff e-mail accounts cannot be continued therefore, and must be pushed back within the bounds of law.
Allan Cruickshanks is a Cavalier Daily viewpoint writer.
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