Our campus email has been monitored by Shelby for MONTHS! EVEN student email accounts have been monitored.
I am disgusted by this. This is micromanagement at its UGLIEST.
Never has there been such complete and utter disregard for privacy at USM as there has been under the Thames administration.
He claims he "loves the students" but he attempted to ruin Rachel Quinlivan's journalism career yesterday. He had been monitoring her email account and he insinuated that she made some kind of trade-off with Glamser (that she would write smears of Thames in return for rec letters for Glamser--a Thames assertion which Glamser COMPLETELY DISCREDITED). In his closing statements, Thames stated that you can mess with him, but don't mess with his students or "his people." But what had he done? He had invaded the privacy of many people, and used info he had mined from their email accounts to attack them in public yesterday. This man is evil. I have decided that he is evil.
I don't want to hear lectures about whether or not he had the legal right to mine emails.
This is a question of ethics. Is what he did ethically right. It is not. Every student and faculty member on campus, whether or not they support Thames, should be FURIOUS at the way he has "gathered information."
Anyone who thinks they are safe, that Glamser and Stringer must have done something wrong to cause Shelby to monitor their personal correspondence, should think again. It's time for EVERYONE on campus to stand up and tell Shelby that this kind of spying won't be tolerated.
Let me add that I was at the hearing yesterday. What amazed me is that Shelby Thames discussed all of these emails, one by one, that he had accumulated without any indication that he saw anything wrong with the fact that he had been monitoring email accounts. He offered no justifications for his mining of emails, and, indeed, acted rather proud that his investigative work had been so "fruitful." This is how deluded this man is.
It's time for him to go. But, until he does, stay the hell away from campus computers, folks.
I have a question pertaining to the emails. I have a USM webmail account, I do not get my online service through USM, and I frequently check my emails from this account at home. Are these emails subject to being read by the dome gnome and his cronies? If so, then what are my rights? I thought that only the government, ie Homeland security, had the right to monitor in that way. The more I think about this, the angrier I get.
Please, someone explain the legalities behind this and what a student -who frequently uses email for personal use- can do about this.
quote: Originally posted by: wary undergrad "I have a question pertaining to the emails. I have a USM webmail account, I do not get my online service through USM, and I frequently check my emails from this account at home. Are these emails subject to being read by the dome gnome and his cronies? If so, then what are my rights? I thought that only the government, ie Homeland security, had the right to monitor in that way. The more I think about this, the angrier I get. Please, someone explain the legalities behind this and what a student -who frequently uses email for personal use- can do about this."
If you have a XXXXXXX@usm.edu account, then YES it is going through the USM server and it can be monitored.
As for who can monitor email--by law--yes, he has the "right" to monitor emails because "technically" your email account and university computers are "university property." However, I would assert that this is the first time this has been done on such grand scale at any university.
Again, it is more a question of ethics and trust than it is of law. Shelby has shown he has no ethics and you can't trust him.
quote: Originally posted by: " If you have a XXXXXXX@usm.edu account, then YES it is going through the USM server and it can be monitored. As for who can monitor email--by law--yes, he has the "right" to monitor emails because "technically" your email account and university computers are "university property." However, I would assert that this is the first time this has been done on such grand scale at any university. Again, it is more a question of ethics and trust than it is of law. Shelby has shown he has no ethics and you can't trust him. "
Thank you for clarification. I am sending out emails to family members, many of whom are USM supporters, with the attachment from an earlier thread letting them know to discontinue use of my former USM email account and giving them notification of my new non-USM affiliated account.
quote: Originally posted by: wary undergrad "Thank you for clarification. I am sending out emails to family members, many of whom are USM supporters, with the attachment from an earlier thread letting them know to discontinue use of my former USM email account and giving them notification of my new non-USM affiliated account."
Might be a good decision, especially if you are one of those "Liberal Arts insurgents." *wink*
What about the students who are paying for the internet privileges and doing it on equipment which they own? How is it justified for the Administration to be reading their personal email?
quote: Originally posted by: StormyMS "What about the students who are paying for the internet privileges and doing it on equipment which they own? How is it justified for the Administration to be reading their personal email?"
I have no idea how to answer this question. Perhaps you could call iTech and ask them. I would love to know how they respond.