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Story Time:Taming Email & Electronic
Communications
Story Time:Taming Email & Electronic
CommunicationsCaroline Walters
University Records Officer
Three Stories
• Email & the University President’s
Wife
• Text Messaging & the Mayor
• Blogging to the Unemployment Line
Once Upon a Time . . .
• University of Nevada Las Vegas– David Ashley, President
• Bonnie – “first lady” “hostess” of University Presidential parties/events.
Email 12-8-2008
Email 2-9-2009
Email 2-18-2009
Email 2-18-2009
Morale of the Story
• Think about how you write and what you send in email.
• Don’t forget that at a Public University your email is a Public Record and can be FOIA.
Other Email Tips• Check spelling/grammar• Always use a subject line – change if
needed• Don’t assume or expect privacy in email• CAPS is yelling in email/text language• If mad, write, save and review after you
calm down• Use the phone or talk in person• Even if you delete the email after you hit
send, it may not be gone.
Once Upon a Time . . .• Kwame Kilpatrick – Mayor of
Detroit (2002-2008)– Became Mayor at age 31
Mayor Kilpatrick Issues- Mayoral Mansion Party- Questionable murder of “dancer” at the
“party”- Removed two police officers who
investigated who then sued the Mayor- Mayor and Chief of Staff testify in court
denying personal relationship.- Settled lawsuit for $8.4 million to keep
text messages with Chief of Staff quiet.
Text Messages
• Newspapers sued for access to settlement which included the text messages
• Mayor – no privacy on city devices• Discussed work and issues related
to the two police officers
Text Messages• Also discussed personal
relationship between the Mayor and Chief of Staff (Christine Beatty)– On Sept. 15, 2002, Beatty described
a sex act she wanted to perform on the mayor but said she didn't know how to approach him about it. He replied: "Next time, just tell me to sit down, shut up and do your thing!"
Test MessagesOn Sept. 19, 2002, Beatty wrote to Kilpatrick: "I have wanted to hold you so badly all day, but I was trying to stay focused on work. So, I promise, not to keep you longer than 15 minutes.“Kilpatrick replied: "Don't promise (N-word.)"Beatty said: "I'm in my office. Do you want me to come to yours or you coming to mine?"Kilpatrick said: "I'm coming down there ... LOL ditto. Freaky Chris!"
Conclusion
– Kwame Kilpatrick plead guilty to two felony counts of obstruction of justice
– 4 months jail time, $1 million restitution to Detroit, surrender law license, 5 years probation
– Resign as mayor of Detroit September 18, 2008 and surrender his state pension from his six years service.
Morale of the Story
• Text messaging is a public record if using University equipment
• Text messages can be FOIA.• Text messages don’t go away that
easily
Once Upon a Time . . .
• Amy Norah Burch– Harvard University– Undergraduate Coordinator for
Committee on Degrees in Social Studies
• Fired in 2004 because of her BlogSource – Harvard Crimson 5-26-2004
Burch & the Blog
• included a link to her personal website in her Harvard e-mail signature.
• Personal website had a link to her online blog, “which contained hundreds of posts about music, politics and her social life.”
Source – Harvard Crimson 5-26-2004
Burch’s Blog Included:
• “I am one shade lighter than homicidal today. I am two snotty e-mails from professors away from bombing the entire Harvard campus.”
• Complained about Director of Undergraduate Studies Anya Bernstein’s “random freaking out” and Champlin-Scharff’s “anal retentive control freakishness.”
• “ready to get a shotgun and declare open season on all senior faculty members and students who dared cross [her].”
Source – Harvard Crimson 5-26-2004
Morale of the Story
• Think before letting of steam in a public electronic forum.
• Keep personal and professional separate.
• Know your rights and the rules of the organization where you work.
Blogging/Facebook Tips• Don’t criticize, make fun of, or make harassing
comments about coworkers.• Don’t post anything that could be construed as
racist, sexist, or otherwise bigoted. • Don’t reveal company trade secrets, or
confidential information.• Before using your electronic space to vent
about workplace problems, try another method.
• Blog anonymously or restrict viewers to your electronic space/blog.
Virginia Public Records Act
"Public record" or "record" means recorded information that documents a transaction or activity by or with any public officer, agency or employee of an agency. Regardless of physical form or characteristic, the recorded information is a public record if it is produced, collected, received or retained in pursuance of law or in connection with the transaction of public business. The medium upon which such information is recorded has no bearing on the determination of whether the recording is a public record.
Code of Virginia, Title 42.1 Chapter 7Virginia Public Records Act
Destruction of Public Records
VA Public Records Act 42.1-86.1:No agency shall destroy or discard a public record unless :(i) the record appears on a records retention and disposition schedule . . . and the record's retention period has expired; (ii) a certificate of records destruction . . .has been properly completed and approved by the agency's designated records officer;(iii) there is no litigation, audit, investigation, request for records pursuant to the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.
Virginia Freedom of Information Act
• § 2.2-3704-A. Except as otherwise specifically provided by law, all public records shall be open to inspection and copying by any citizens of the Commonwealth during the regular office hours of the custodian of such records. Access to such records shall not be denied to citizens of the Commonwealth, representatives of newspapers and magazines with circulation in the Commonwealth, and representatives of radio and television stations broadcasting in or into the Commonwealth. The custodian may require the requester to provide his name and legal address. The custodian of such records shall take all necessary precautions for their preservation and safekeeping.
Remember:
"When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property."
Thomas Jefferson
Questions/Thanks!
Caroline J. Walters, MA, MLSUniversity Records Officer
Records Management OfficeBox 400898, 2400 Old Ivy Road
www.virginia.edu/recordsmanagement
