Separation of University and Political State

I received an alarming email today in which the chancellor informed the university community about what we can and cannot do in relation to the political campagins "with University Resources:"

Dear Carolina Students, Faculty and Staff:

With Election Day approaching, this is a reminder that students, faculty and staff may not use University resources - e-mail accounts, computers, vehicles, equipment, supplies, funds, postage, photocopying, faxes, and the like - for political campaign activities.

University employees who want to engage in political campaign activities may do so when those campaign efforts will not interfere with their job responsibilities.

Everyone in our campus community has the right to freely express their views on any subject, including advocacy for or against candidates for public office. It's just that, in exercising this right, no University resources may be used.

I urge everyone to become informed and to vote. If you live in Orange County, consider registering (if you have not already) and voting early at the one-stop location at the Morehead Building on campus starting today, Oct. 16 through Nov. 1. (For details, see http://www.co.orange.nc.us/elect/onestop.asp.) You can find a complete list of one-stop voting locations by county at http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/content.aspx?id=17.


See you at the polls.

Holden Thorp

I was shocked and wrote a reply:

Dear Chancellor Thorp,

While I appreciate that the university's resources are not to be used directly to forward a political campaign, but I think your email may be overstated. I'm not sure what you mean exactly by "political campaign activities." Is this paid time working for one of the campaigns? If so, then I can see you point more readily, especially if the university resources used are "used-up," such as postages, equipment use, photocopying, etc.

But what if you are advocating a candidate or party as a volunteer, particularly if it is at your own initiative? What if furthermore, the advocating of said candidate or party in no way diminishes the resources of the university, or diminishes resources at a level consistent with any other allowed personal use? Overuse and abuse of the computer network (spamming, or hogging lots of bandwidth) is banned for any reason, and you didn't mention that in your email, so I don't interpret that to be what you are addressing.

Am I banned from writing an email to a friend advocating a candidate while in a University Library at a University computer? What about using my own computer, but using the University network? Can I use my UNC email address to sign up for updates from one of the campaigns -- surely that's acceptable? What about updates from some other news source (CNN, Washington Post, Fox News) about the campaign? What if I forward these to others (in small scale, just a few email addresses), or donate to a campaign using my own money, but through the university network? I think at a base level of interpretation of your email, you are banning all of the above activities I mention if they take place in a University building, on the University network, or on a University email account. Do you really mean to ban such activities? I don't see how emailing someone about the campaign is different from emailing them about what happened on campus last Friday night.

Do you intend to ban such activities if they are advocating something other than politics, such as a particular religious expression, support for rights of marginalized peoples, criticism of the government? Surely not.


Please clarify your email for all of us, especially if you do not mean all the things I have construed you to mean.

Thank you,
Michael

What do you think?