I just got this in my in box, with instructions from my division chair that all faculty members are henceforth to paste the following block of legalese into their e-mail signatures:
This document may contain confidential information and is intended solely for the use of the addressee. If you received it in error, please contact the sender at once and destroy the document. The document may contain information subject to restrictions of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Acts. Such information may not be disclosed or used in any fashion outside the scope of the service for which you are receiving the information.
I certainly understand and appreciate the need to protect a student's privacy, but quite frankly over the course of my daily communication, I often write e-mails that I want and expect people to forward. Long e-mail discussions will be somewhat harder to follow, and the emotional tone of even the friendliest "hello" sent to an incoming freshman or a "thank you" sent to a webmaster who has linked to my work will be considerably modified.
Does anybody else have any experience with this? How would you react if you were asked to append such a message to every e-mail you sent? What if received such an e-mail? Since I never see signatures like this from any of the colleagues I correspond with, I'm guessing that either this is a brand new thing that will sweep the nation, or Seton Hill is, to quote one of my colleagues, "using a hammer on an eggshell."
P.S. I can't actually comply with this until I get a computer with the full version of Outlook installed -- unless there's a way to change the signature via webmail.
how would you feel
I'd be tempted to refuse to do without some clarification as to need. For instance, I think that the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act is some kind of financial disclosure/privacy legislation. Might be needed for a registrar, but teachers???
Also, there's the question of accessibility. Stick this legalese on the end of every email, and students will perceive every correspondence as formal.
Then, of course, you can always tell them that you don't send emails to the wrong address :lol:
Charlie
cyberdash
Two options
1) Put in the message, in 2-pt. font.
2) Recommend the message be replaced by a link to a page on the school's servers.
I agree, there needs to be some clarification why this is such a burning issue all of a sudden. FERPA only rears its head for me when some student decides to sic parents on me because I "gave their little darling a bad grade." I invoke FERPA, end of discussion, since the student is generally loathe to put permission in writing.
another suggestion
Ask the person from whom you received this directive if the legalese is being printed at the bottom of all department and university letterhead / stationery, as well.
It strikes me as spineless administrative overreaction to something campus legal ran into. The assumption is that faculty are not competent enough to understand or apply their own judgment re FERPA and so have to have all their communications filtered through disclaimers. Irritating nonsense.
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Mike Edwards
www.vitia.org
One More Thing
In legal correspondence I receive, the subject line -- when applicable -- simply says " -- privileged and confidential" after the subject. Much simpler.
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Mike Edwards
www.vitia.org
Re: Privileged and Confidential
That's a very good suggestion, Mike.
Dennis G. Jerz
Literacy Weblog
I used to post here with the ID JerzDG.
Hmmm...
I concur with the suggestions to either put the disclaimer in 2pt font and/or link to a disclaimer site. Much easier to do, less invasive.
I disagree with the use of "privileged" as it connotes a specific legal status protected between counsel and client. "Personal", depending on the nature of the communication, might work, but the school may frown heavily on that since it's their network resources you're using (assuming we're talking about communication between prof/student from a school email address).
A number of large corporations have had policies for years calling for similar disclaimers, but the issue of liability based on use of an email disclaimer hasn't yet been contested to the best of my knowledge.