This post is based on a letter I recently wrote as editor of THE-Ave.US to a UW Prof who was upset that a post on TA had referred to a conversation the Prof had posted on the AAUP listserv.
My letter, written as gmail, raises two important points. First, unlike most other large universities, the UW does not have any forum for public discussion. Faculty, staff and students are more restricted in their exercise of free speech than their peers in China! The only exceptions to this rule are the student Daily, a rather thin and feckless paper that never takes up any issues, and a listserv run by the UW chapter of the AAUP.
The listserv is an odd being. It is, under State law, a public forum. In the past the list has boldly taken on many major campus issues … from abuse of faculty privileges, abusive behavior by past Presidents and Provosts, racism in the Athletic Department, and the need for equity in the non tenure tracks. While the list is controlled by the AAUP and has frequently been censored, the AAUP list has stood out as the only organ on campus willing to discuss such issues.
Many faculty treasure the AAUP for this listserv. However, there is a problem. Some faculty do not understand that the list is open to all readers under Washington State law. Indeed under that same law, all UW email is open to the public! If faculty, staff or students want any discussion to be private, they need to be reminded that @washington.edu or @uw.edu email is fully public. A simple request to the UW will mean that all your emails will be made available in the public domain.
My own posts to the AAUP listserv have been accessed by the administration and openly distributed to some pretty difficult people. These posts included extremely delicate discussions of my attempts to reach an academic colleague in Europe who could help me in an effort to make certain Buchenwald documents public. Despite my protests, the UW disclosures made names public, including UW faculty who helped me and the name of a 90 + year old colleague in Oslo.
I strongly suggest that UW faculty conduct only strictly UW business under UW domains and any other discussion be via non UW accounts. This, of course applies to the AAUP listerv as well.. If the AAUP wants to have a private listserv, they know how to do that … it can easily be done by moving the list off campus.
The first thing we lawyers do when someone hires us to make your life miserable is subpoena your emails. In the case of UW employees, regardless of whether you’re a tenured prof or a janitor, it doesn’t even require a subpoena because a simple public records request will get the job done.
I never cease to be amazed by what people put in emails. Obviously, most of the human race thinks email is private. Ha! It’s not.
and .. folks at the Uw seem blissfully aware that then listserv is simply a very, very public form of email.