Unsolicited Advice for All UCLA and UC Faculty

Byuclafaculty

Yesterday, we provided some unsolicited – and maybe unwelcome? – advice for the folks in Murphy Hall.  Today, we provide some advice for all UCLA and UC faculty.  Actually, it is a reminder of advice that we give from time to time.  We live in an age where the word “transparency” has taken on an aura of unmitigated goodness.  In practice, transparency – at public universities – can mean invasions of privacy when it comes to emails.  Emails at public universities are subject to public documents requests.  From time to time, groups that don’t like what some faculty has said about some issue of the day go on fishing expeditions in his/her emails.

A colleague at another university sent yours truly the following item which can service as a reminder to regard what you say in emails and other records as potentially public:

A group of law professors at UNC-Chapel Hill is standing behind Gene Nichol, director of the school’s poverty center, after a conservative think tank requested the left-leaning professor’s emails, phone records and calendars.Thirty law professors signed a letter questioning the motives of the Raleigh-based Civitas Institute, which promotes limited government and implementation of conservative policies. On Oct. 25, the institute used the state’s public records law to seek six weeks’ worth of Nichol’s email correspondence, his calendar entries, phone logs, text messages and a list of electronic devices issued to Nichol by the university…

Full article at https://portside.org/2013-11-27/north-carolina-faculty-complain-after-conservative-group-seeks-liberal-professor%E2%80%99s-email

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