UW student emails are considered public record, but a committee of Wyoming legislators, the task force on digital information privacy, aims to change that.
Though the university has yet to take a stance on whether student emails should be part of the public record. Chad Baldwin, director of institutional communications, said the emails fall alongside faculty, staff and administrator emails under Wyoming’s Public Records Act.
“Student emails, by virtue of the fact that they are on a public server, are part of the public record,” Baldwin said. “Under current state law, student emails are not automatically exempt from the public records law.”
Legislators on the task force on digital information privacy disagree.
“I’m not so convinced they are public records,” Wyoming Sen. Cale Case, R-Fremont, said. “I don’t think you give up your privacy just because you enroll in school.”
Rep. Mary Throne, D-Laramie, also said treating student emails as public record was a misinterpretation of the law, and the task force was trying to clarify the law rather than change it.
“We’re not really making a new exemption from the public record,” Throne said. “The public record has to do with government. Student emails don’t fall into that.”
Previous ASUW President Ahmed Balogun’s emails were once the subject of a public records request submitted by the Branding Iron.
“They had a suspicion that I gave a statement to my executives that they shouldn’t talk to the BI,” Balogun said. “But I did not give any instruction of that nature.”
When he found out about the request, Balogun said he was disappointed reporters had not come to him directly and above all was surprised to learn about his emails’ status as public record.
“I was shocked,” Balogun said. “Students should be made more aware. The school should tell students ‘Hey, this is public record. You might want to be cautious.’”
Case said the “inadequate notice” given to students by the school is part of the problem, but the issue was still a matter of principle.
“I don’t think student emails are that much different from regular emails,” he said. “If you were writing letters, you wouldn’t expect those to be made public. Why do they automatically become public because it’s in an electronic medium?”
Rep. Tyler Lindholm, R-Crook, added that a particularly backwards aspect of the whole issue is legislator emails are exempt from the public record even though they fit more closely to the spirit of the Public Records Act.
“It’s an important part of having a transparent government,” Lindholm said. “It’s messed up that we have no protections for students who aren’t elected officials but the legislature is exempt.”
Baldwin said the school receives few requests for student emails.
