About 40 million e-mail transactions were handled by Iowa State during the 2000-2001 academic year. The privacy of these e-mail transactions are being called into question.

E-mail written by ISU employees – including professors and administrators – who are considered employees of the state, could occasionally be subject to scrutiny under Iowa open records law. Other states are struggling to establish policies guiding the usage of academic e-mail.

There is a lot of uncertainty about the amount of privacy and protection e-mail deserves under the law, said Paul Tanaka, director of University Legal Services.

“I think it’s clear that public record laws were written for the day when communication occurred by paper,” Tanaka said.

In his view, it is “improper to intercept a private communication,” although Tanaka said business-related e-mail could be subject to exposure.

According to the ISU employee handbook, any files written in electronic form and maintained on university premises, computers or servers, can be viewed without prior notice by authorized university personnel when there is suspicion of misuse of ISU property.

A case surfaced at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington when Mike Adams, professor of criminal justice, forwarded an inflammatory e-mail from a former pupil to many of his friends and colleagues.

When the pupil received angry e-mails in response to her forwarded message, she accused Adams of intimidation and defamation. Administrators eventually accessed personal e-mail messages sent by Adams.

In another case, a newspaper obtained access to e-mail written between J. Wade Gilley, former president of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and an administrator, that contained personal information implying an extramarital affair. More than 900 pages of e-mails were released, under university policy and the Tennessee Open Records Act.

The ISU employee handbook seeks to prevent similar exposure: “With the increasing use of electronic communications, staff members should keep in mind that these messages and materials may be accessed or public records if located in University facilities or equipment. In a number of cases, e-mail written with the intent to be humorous, personal or a private conversation has become public leading to subsequent disciplinary action and causing embarrassment to the individual and organization.”

So far, no contentious incidents have occurred at Iowa State.

“I don’t know that anybody has asked for faculty e-mail,” Tanaka said. “The way the public records law works, is that whoever asks for the information files a public records request with the state agency, and then a determination is made. If we think the record is not a public record, we will deny access to it. Then the requester can go to court.”

Some federal laws are present, but their interactions with state laws are unclear, Tanaka said.

“Anything that we would make available would be made through the guidance of the University Council. Any information we provide currently is through court orders,” said Mike Bowman, assistant director of Academic Information Technologies, which handles e-mail transaction on campus. “The usual is the request in terms of activity, not [content].”