Indiana University Bloomington

Meetings & Minutes

April 16, 2008

Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, Room A223

Council Members in Attendance:  Rob Aspy, Jonathan Bolte, Christina Kuzmych, Dennis McGreer, Dan Ondrik, Pam Owens, Claudia Polley, Suzanne Ryan (UHRS Ex-officio), Marge Schrag, Patrick Smith, Tracy Smith, Greg Travis, Ed Vasquez (CWA Ex-officio).

Proxies:  Margaret Baechtold for Mark Goodner, Claudia Polley for Paula Phillips, Dixie Patterson for Beverly Vicker.

Guests:  Julie Aders, Registrar; Paula Bourne, UHRS; Mark Bruhn, VPIT; Jacqueline Cushman, Continuing Studies; Kip Drew, University Counsel; Susan Johnson, UPIRA; Joe Lovrinic, VP Public Affairs & Govt. Relations; Deborah Robinson, Alumni Relations; Adrian Ross, KSOB; Doug Sanders, Library Preservation; Emily Springston, University Counsel.

Members Not in Attendance:  Tracy Bee, Jim Brown, Pete Bucklin, Jim Johnson.

Meeting Minutes

A motion to approve the March, 2008 minutes as written was made, seconded and passed.

Old Business

Website Re-design Update – Jonathan Bolte

The website is published, and a few templates are up and running.  Everything should be completed by the May business meeting.

BPC Election Results

The following professional staff members were elected to the BPC:

  • Unit 1 – Eric Love – Office of Academic Support & Diversity

  • Unit 1 – Susan Johnson – University Planning, Institutional Research & Accountability

  • Unit 2 – Michele Neary – University Human Resource Services

  • Unit 3 – Margaret Baechtold – Division of Student Affairs

  • Unit 4 – Kelly Thacker – Residential Programs & Services

  • Unit 5 – Jennifer Chaffin – Library

  • Unit 6 – Dee Verostko – Biology

  • Unit 7 – Liz Peck – Public & Environmental Affairs

All new members will serve a three-year term, with the exception of Susan Johnson.  Susan will serve a two-year term, since she is stepping in for Trish Surfus, who recently resigned from the BPC.

Christina and Dan will make arrangements to meet with all new members to hold a brief orientation prior to the beginning of their term, which officially begins July 1.

New Business

May Reception

This year’s reception to recognize volunteers and outgoing council members will be held in conjunction with the May business meeting, May 21, at KSOB 3055.  The Outreach and Advocacy Committee is in charge of refreshments, and the Professional Interests Committee will take care of ordering plaques for outgoing members.

 

Committee Reports

 

Executive Committee

The Executive Committee met Tuesday, April 8, in RTV 271.  The following items were discussed:

  • The outcome of this year’s election – Everyone was happy to know that all seats are now filled.

  • The new committee structure – It was agreed that committee progress in general has been slower than normal this year, due to the resignation of several committee chair persons.  All in all, however, the new structure seems to be working well.

  • The agenda was set for the April business meeting.

Communications and Marketing Committee

Please refer to “Website Re-design Update” under Old Business.  In addition, the Communications and Marketing Committee is working on a new format for the BPC newsletter.

Outreach and Advocacy Committee

  • The “business-after-hours” event has been set for Wednesday, April 23, at the Cyclotron.  Ambrosia will cater the event, and the Cyclotron will provide coffee.  An invitation was issued via email to all professional staff, and as of today, 43 people have responded.  There is a maximum number of 50 people allowed for the Cyclotron tour, so anyone who hasn’t yet sent back an rsvp should do so as soon as possible.  Email Tracy Smith at tracys@indiana.edu.

  • The Outreach and Advocacy Committee is also working on plans for the May reception.

  • Eric Love has volunteered to contact Edwin Marshall, Vice President for Diversity, to be our guest at the June business meeting.

At today’s meeting, ideas for a future “business-after-hours” event were discussed.  Mentioned were:  Hilltop Garden Center, Wylie House, Woodlawn House, the Fine Arts Museum, Bryan House, the “secret” places at IMU, Mathers Museum, Kinsey Institute, and the football stadium.

Professional Interests

The Professional Interests Committee awarded professional development grants to the following:

  • Zelideh Cabada, Residential Programs and Services

  • Kate Ellis, Teaching & Learning Technologies Centers

  • Mike Gray, Radio & Television Services

  • Erika Lee, University Graduate School

  • Victoria Nelson, Indiana Business Research Center, KSOB

  • Keith Roach, Creative Services

  • Andrew Shea, IU Health Center

  • John Summerlot, Residential Programs and Services

Mark Goodner has ordered plaques for outgoing council members for next month’s reception.

Ad-hoc and Campus Committees

Campus Child Care Coalition – Jonathan Bolte

In lieu of a request for exception of the fee benefit for employees, Tim Dunnuck has asked for staff raises.  There has not yet been any word on whether this was approved.

Capital Priorities Committee

Christina and Rob recently attended a master plan input session. 

Search and Screen/Review Committees

School of Music – Dean Review – Dennis McGreer

A survey has been done, and internal documents are being reviewed.  The process should continue through May.

Libraries – Dean Search and Screen

Provost Hanson asked Christina to identify someone from the BPC who would be willing to serve on the search committee for Dean of Libraries.  The names of Tracy Bee and Pete Bucklin were submitted.  The search will not start until sometime this fall, and no word has yet been received as to who will actually be appointed to serve on this committee.

Special Guests: 

Mark Bruhn, Vice President for Information Technology; Kip Drew and Emily Springston, University Counsel

At 4:00, we were joined by guests Mark Bruhn, Kip Drew and Emily Springston.  Beth Cate was originally scheduled to join us as well, but last-minute changes prohibited her from doing so.  Prior to today’s meeting, Beth sent the following comments to the BPC regarding the open records act, as it relates to email:

  • Email as a type of record does not get any special exemption under the open records act.  That is, email in our IU email accounts is just another type of record maintained by IU, and that means that as an initial matter, it is subject to disclosure under the open records act.  Only if the nature of a specific email places it within a specific exemption under the open records act, would that email not be disclosable.  For example, if an email contained personal health information, related to a faculty member's research project, or was a personnel record for an employee. 

  • There are a number of exceptions under the act, but no broad exception for "personal" as opposed to business-related email.  Since IU permits some incidental personal use of IU email accounts, as long as the use is otherwise lawful and in accordance with IU policy, people may be using their IU email accounts to communicate with family and friends, send jokes, etc.  All of those emails are disclosable under the open records act unless they fall within specific exemptions.

  • Anyone -- whether or not they are from the State of Indiana -- can make a request under the open records act, and they don't have to tell us why they are asking for the records.  There are very few limits on what types of requests people can make -- the requests need to be reasonably specific so that we know what they are asking for (but that could include "all IU email for X person for the following time period"), and commercial and political entities are prohibited from getting lists of contact info for students, faculty, staff, and participants in IU programs, for commercial (spamming) or political (fundraising, vote-getting etc.) use.  

  • We have not actually gotten many such requests, either from private individuals or the press, but we have gotten a handful of them.  We're a little surprised we haven't gotten more (but thankful).  One example arose in the context of a contentious divorce, in which one spouse sought the other's email; another arose in the context of an outside group asking for a faculty member's email to check whether he had exceeded our "incidental personal use" policies or conflicts of interest and commitment policies in using his IU email account in a professional consulting matter.

  • If staff are concerned about their personal email being disclosable under the open records act, they should get a private email account and use that for personal email instead of their IU account.  They can still use their IU internet access to check Gmail etc. from their IU desktop, but as long as they don't store the Gmail items on their desktop or on any IU server, we believe those items would not fall within the definition of "records" under the act. 

  • Having said that, IU employees should not be using private accounts to conduct IU business by email, or forwarding/storing their IU email in a private account.  This raises problems for the University for ensuring the accessibility of such business email if/when needed -- for example, if we are sued and need to produce copies of those email in response to a subpoena or other discovery request, or to get them ourselves as part of our defense of the lawsuit.  Plus, we don't have control over the level of security afforded those records by the third party provider, so if they contain sensitive personal or institutional data, that could pose substantial risks to those data. 

Kip emphasized the fact that email is unlike a phone call or a written letter.  Once an email is sent, the original sender has no control over what happens to it.  In other words, email is:  eternal, embarrassing, and eternal.  We should all remember to think and write our emails as if they were going to appear in the newspaper.

Mark distributed copies of Policy IT-07, which can be viewed online at http://itpo.iu.edu/IT07.html.  This policy covers files and email on university-owned computers.  Another website Mark suggested folks might find helpful is http://www.staysafeonline.org.

Some questions asked were:

q.  What about W-2 information we receive in our email accounts?

a.  This could be considered a personnel record.  Therefore, it should not be considered an open record.

q.  What about emails regarding personnel issues being discussed with HR?

a.  One could argue that these emails are deliberative and should not be considered open records.

q. How long does a former employee have access to his/her IU email account?

a.  In most cases, the account is left open for 7 days before it is disabled.  The account could be terminated immediately if the employee were terminated with cause, or the university could choose to leave the account open if there were some benefit to the university for doing so.

q.  How long is deleted email kept?

a.  Deleted email remains in Exchange for 15 days.

Announcements

The May meeting will be held Wednesday, May 21, from 3:00-5:00 p.m. in KSOB 3055.  Following a brief business meeting, we will hold our annual May reception, to recognize volunteers and outgoing council members.

Meeting was adjourned at 5:00 p.m.

Meeting minutes respectfully submitted by Teresa Spiegel.

Minutes Archive