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There appears to be a general trend towards issuing FAQ's which try to
smooth out the more harshly stated but legally defining text in an either an
agreement like the one imposed by Google, or in this case an MSU
administrative ruling.  I think that it helps to try to summarize the
defining text in a simple statement that in this case could be used to
either attract or discourage future students from attending MSU.  Summaries
like "Come to MSU where we protect you from SPAM" might have some traction
but "Come to MSU where we protect you from the opinions of others", or even
worse, "Come to MSU where we teach you not to express yourself" clearly have
a somewhat less positive edge.  Some might consider this a rather frivolous
argument but my kids each visited over 30 different colleges and
universities before deciding where to do their undergraduate degrees and
most of those institutions, including MSU, were ruled out due to their
perceived indifference towards student interests and self expression.  

Fortunately MSU did significantly better with my family at the graduate
level ;-) 

-----Original Message-----
From: MSU Network Administrators Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of John B. Johnston
Sent: Thursday, May 07, 2009 9:22 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MSUNAG] Appropriate use of MSU e-mail services

I believe the FAQ associated with the new directives addresses the issue 
of personal opinion with respect to the family and friends of students 
(see: 
http://lct.msu.edu/guidelines-policies/appropriate-use-of-msu-email-faqs.htm
l).  


"This Administrative Ruling is intended to regulate unsolicited e-mail...."

Family and friends are persons with whom one has a personal affiliation, 
and thus, would not seem to fall into the category of "unsolicited".  
However, for University employees the FAQ notes that:

"When sending an e-mail from an MSU e-mail account to someone outside of 
the University community, University employees should take great care to 
explicitly note that the contents of their e-mail are personal and do 
not represent the University."

So perhaps the moral of the story is don't use MSU email to express 
personal opinions to persons outside of MSU if you are an 
employee....or, make sure to add that disclaimer.


Laurence Bates wrote:
> So, let me see if I have this correct:
>
> According to the new directive "The Universities e-mail services are not
for
> private or personal use", but "Incidental personal uses of the e-mail
system
> are permitted", and "the Universities e-mail services are not intended as
a
> forum for the expression of personal opinions".
>
> Hmmm, I wonder how that works in practice?
>
> If a parent spends $50,000 to send their child to MSU and wants to
> congratulate them via their MSU email account, is that "incidental" or
> "personal" and would it be allowed to include any personal opinions?
>
> If a student chooses to spend four years of their life attending MSU can
> they use MSU's email services to communicate with their friends provided
> that they do not express any personal opinions, or is that still
> insufficiently incidental to be permitted?
>
> In my opinion ... (item deleted due to current constraints).
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave Gift, Vice Provost, Libraries, Computing and Technology
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
> Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2009 5:59 PM
> To: MSU Community
> Subject: Appropriate use of MSU e-mail services
>
> This message is sent to notify everyone with a MSU NetID of a revision
> of the Administrative Ruling regarding appropriate use of MSU e-mail
> services.  This revision replaces and further clarifies an earlier
> Administrative Ruling originally posted in November 2004 and updated in
> September 2007.
>
> The Administrative Ruling is posted at:
> http://lct.msu.edu/guidelines-policies/appropriate-use-of-msu-email.html
> It is accompanied there by a related FAQ.
>
>
>