Imagine you wrote something expressing your opinion on a political issue, it was published in the newspaper, and following that publication, you were forced to send all your email on that issue and anything related to it to a group of political activists that were opposed to your opinions. Would you feel intimidated? Would you be reluctant to do so? Well, under the Freedom of Information Act and if you were an employee at a public university, you might have to, as the case of a University of Wisconsin professor demonstrates. The Daily Cardinal at the university reports, in part:
With Wisconsin legislators between sessions and the budget repair bill temporarily tied up in the courts, state Republicans and Democrats have—relatively speaking—taken a welcome break from the political pettiness that’s become so standard this term.
That is, until March 17, when the Republican Party of Wisconsin—spear-headed in this particular case by Stephan Thompson—decided to take a run at UW-Madison’s revered history professor William Cronon.
Cronon posted a blog entry March 15 examining the influence the American Legislative Exchange Council may have on conservative policy making in the state. Two days later, the RPW submitted a Freedom of Information Act request for all of Cronon’s e-mails since Jan. 1, 2011, containing words including “Republican,” “union” and “recall,” acronyms like “WEAC” and “AFSCME” and names including Gov. Scott Walker, both Fitzgerald brothers and all eight Republican legislators subject to recall efforts.
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Legally, there is little room to complain about the FOIA request. Although professors at state universities have vastly different job descriptions and day-to-day communications from nearly all other state workers, they are still public employees.
Cronon said he takes care to limit his university account usage to work-related communications, but expressed concern that some conversations with students—which are protected under the Family Educational Rights and Protection Act—and colleagues may be unnecessarily or illegally made public.
That such requests are legal may well be the case, but that they are ethical is certainly not. Indeed they seem designed to intimidate. This request is outrageous and unacceptable. Moreover, it will further complicate the work of the university, and of the technology services as faculty and staff increasingly use external programs, simply because they cannot be accessed through requests.