Privacy at issue before U. Council

At today's meeting, a proposed e-privacy policy will be presented. University Council will hold its first meeting of the new semester this afternoon in the Quadrangle's McClelland Hall, with electronic privacy and the annual dining survey topping today's relatively light agenda. Other items planned for the meeting -- which will be held from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. -- include the year-end report of the Recreation and Intercollegiate Athletics Committee and monthly status reports from University President Judith Rodin, Provost Robert Barchi and Council's five major constituent groups. Physiology Professor Martin Pring, who chairs Council's Committee on Communications, is presenting a proposed policy on electronic privacy today. Pring headed the effort to create a proposal and said yesterday that he believed most people do not realize how little privacy they are guaranteed when using e-mail and storing data on their computers at Penn. Pring noted that employees are not guaranteed any protection of their e-mail. He added that while much of students' personal information is protected by law, these protections do not extend to areas like e-mail. The University currently has no specific protections for students or faculty and staff members. "Any policy will be a substantial improvement," Pring said. The proposed policy notes that "personal communications and files transmitted over or stored on University systems are not treated differently from business communications," so that University officials can at any time ask for -- or take -- information stored on University systems. For students specifically, it also notes that "the University does not generally monitor or access the contents of student e-mail or computer accounts," but reserves the right to do so under the authorization of specific University officials. Pring noted that a stronger proposal for a policy was made four years ago but was not adopted by administrators because the general counsel's office advised that the policy would be too restrictive on the University. This time, Pring said, the proposed policy was created in consultation with the University's general counsel's office. In its other major business today, Council will hear from representatives of the Undergraduate Assembly about the results of the dining survey conducted last semester by the UA and Dining Services, which was outsourced to Bon Appetit Management Co last July. UA Student Life Committee Chairman David Burd, a Wharton sophomore, said the most noteworthy finding of the survey was that students wanted dining halls to have longer operating hours. "We were happy with both the results and Dining's reaction to them," Burd said. "People were not satisfied with the current closing time, of dinner especially." In response to the survey results, dining officials agreed to extend the dinner hours at Hill House this semester by one hour on weekdays, keeping Hill open until 9 p.m., he said. Council is a University-wide advisory group composed of 92 students, faculty and staff. It meets monthly to discuss issues of relevance to the Penn community.