[1552] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
"Gentlemen" reading a Lady's mail
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Dave Del Torto)
Mon Sep 22 12:10:43 1997
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 1997 13:53:21 -0700
To: cryptography@c2.net
From: Dave Del Torto <ddt@pgp.com>
Foreshadowings of the future of electronic privacy in America?
Call your Congressional representatives soon...
dave
................................. cut here .................................
<http://www.news-observer.com/daily/1997/09/19/tri16.html>
UNC Professor Says Police Read Her E-Mail
The faculty member, who belongs to a socialist group, says she was
confronted by a campus safety officer.
By ANNE BLYTHE, The Chapel Hill News
CHAPEL HILL (NORTH CAROLINA) -- A UNC professor says she was confronted
last week by a school public safety officer who had copies of her e-mail
correspondence, and Chancellor Michael Hooker has ordered an investigation
of the incident.
Elin O'Hara Slavick, an associate art professor, said that Capt. Clay
Williams, chief investigator for the UNC Office of Public Safety, was
waiting for her when she arrived at her office in the Hanes Arts Center on
Sept. 11. Williams, she said, had copies of e-mail written among her and
other members of the Carolina Socialist Forum, a student organization.
She said Williams wanted to ask her about her plans to assemble with others
last Friday at the dedication of the McColl Building, where Federal Reserve
Chairman Alan Greenspan would speak.
The group, which included professors and students, planned to give out
transcripts of an exchange during congressional testimony between Rep.
Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Greenspan about the growing disparity between
the wealthy and poor in the United States. Slavick, in a letter Tuesday to
Hooker, said that Williams asked her whether she or anybody in her group
had "far-out ideas."
"As a professor, I am disappointed, unnerved, and shocked that campus
security, which should be insuring the safety and protecting the rights of
the university community, is instead monitoring student organizations'
e-mail, attempting to chill free speech and investigating members of a
university organization," Slavick said in her letter.
The experience "was chilling," Slavick wrote. She said that although
Williams was polite, she didn't understand why he hadn't contacted her by
telephone or tried to schedule an appointment. "Instead, I feel, he
attempted to intimidate me," she wrote.
Slavick also told Hooker that she hoped the administration would provide
statements "guaranteeing this campus as a site where different political
opinions can be freely expressed and constitutional rights exercised
without threat of recrimination, and that e-mail correspondence will not be
monitored."
Hooker said Thursday that he asked Susan Ehringhaus, UNC-CH legal counsel,
to investigate the matter after being notified of the incident by e-mail.
He said he had not received Slavick's letter.
Williams declined to comment. "This is matter of investigation," he said.
"I wish I could discuss it, but I can't."
Chief Don Gold, director of the public safety office, could not be reached
for comment.
Slavick said she wanted to give administrators a chance to address the
issue before elaborating further on her letter.
Anne Blythe can be reached at 932-8741 or <ablythe@nando.com>.
Copyright © 1997 The News and Observer Publishing Company
Raleigh, North Carolina
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Dave Del Torto PGP, Inc. tel: +1.415.596.1781
ddt@pgp.com web: http://www.pgp.com
