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May 01, 2008, 11:48 AM ET
U. of Florida Searches for Person Who Disclosed Controversial Admissions Decision
The University of Florida will begin combing through the e-mail messages of students and faculty members in search of someone who leaked to the press information about a controversial admissions decision, The Gainesville Sun reports today.
The newspaper reported in April that the son of a Republican fund raiser was admitted to the university’s College of Medicine even though the committee charged with making admissions decisions had rejected him. The dean of the medical college, Bruce C. Kone, overrode the committee’s decision, the newspaper reported.
It identified the admittee as Benjamin Mendelsohn. His father is a Hollywood, Fla., ophthalmologist who gave, and encouraged others to give, money to the 2006 campaign of Gov. Charlie Crist.
E-mail messages from faculty members at state-run universities are considered public records in Florida. Student e-mail messages, on the other hand, are considered protected personal information under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
But a spokeswoman for the university, Janine Sikes, is quoted saying the university is justified in searching through students’ e-mail messages in this case. Only university e-mail accounts will be scanned, she said, not those that students establish via commercial providers. —Andrea L. Foster
Categories: Security
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