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Harvard Secretly Searched Deans' Email

Posted by timothy on from the scream-like-howard-dean dept.

theodp writes "Taking a page from HP's playbook, Harvard University administrators secretly searched the emails of 16 deans last fall, looking for a leak to reporters about a case of cheating. The deans were not warned about the email access and only one was told of the search afterward. Dean and CS prof Michael Smith said in an email Sunday that Harvard will not comment on personnel matters or provide additional information about the board cases that were concluded during the fall term. Smith's office and the Harvard general counsel's office authorized the search, according to a Boston Globe report. Smith's Harvard bio notes that his entrepreneurial experience included co-founding and selling Liquid Machines, where Smith coincidentally invented a software technique designed to keep unauthorized people from reading electronic documents."

3 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. All places I worked by gagol · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It was always made clear to me that my work email could be monitored for any reason. Dean or janitor, you are an employee.

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    Tomorrow is another day...
  2. Re:There was no unauthorized access. by Kupfernigk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The point is whether, given the supposedly Enlightenment ideals of the Western idea of a university, they should have done. If they are just a corporation that educates people for money, that is one thing. If they are a university set up to stand for the possibility of a better society, that is another. Personally I prefer universities when they fight corporatism, not when they support it.

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    From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
  3. /., I am disappoint by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here we have a story about how students, generally of wealth and privilege, being caught cheating, and being handed less severe sentences then are handed out by low ranking local state schools. Adding to that, the school's biggest concern now seems to be to get whomever had the audacity to air Harvard's dirty laundry.

    Slashdot reaction? Silly noobs, e-mail is insecure. Employers have the right to search company e-mail.

    Hey guys, how about concern about what these people are teaching the kids who, let's face it, will be future congresscritters and other leaders. Hey, it's OK to cheat, just don't get caught, or else you'll get a slap on the wrist. Oh, and be sure to exact revenge on whoever lets the plebs know.