"Please let our readers know that a request for public records for
University email is the same as any other public record request. Every
email that is sent or received under uncg.edu must be retained and made available upon request. The UNCG servers keep back ups for five years.
PIRT requests should be very specific about what you are looking for (ex: all
correspondence between 'x' and 'y' from 'date' to 'date'). You should
also be aware that you will probably be charged a 'copying' fee which
may include an hourly charge for the person making the copies.
University Counsel will delay provision of the documents for as long as
they can. Learn persistence! They may claim that
they cannot provide specific emails because they are part of an ongoing
criminal matter or a personnel record. You should get this in writing.
I
have attached the State and the UNCG policies. You should attend
particularly to the state policies 132-6 (inspection and examination),
132-6.2 (provisions for copies), and 132-9 (Access). ( http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/
On
a related note, as I predicted, many faculty and administrators are
buying into the script the leadership wrote, that is, that this is a
secondary employment issue. It is not. It is a hostile work environment
issue that is centered on Human Resources and General Counsel.
I
would love to see this conversation get back on track to the real
problem. For several years, Human Resources has responded to claims of
work force violence in two ways. One--tell the complainant that they do
not have the right to make a formal complaint because they can't prove
discrimination regarding a federally protected class (race, gender,
sexual orientation, disability, or veteran status) motivated the hostile
behavior. Two--investigate the complainant in order to dismiss them for
cause, forcibly transfer, or lay-off. The correct course of action
would be to formalize the complaint under the authority of the WorkForce
Violence Policy and investigate the person initiating the obnoxious
behavior.
Attachments:
NC Guide To Open Government and Public Records
University Policy Manual, Guide To Public Records, Electronic Records Retention
UNCG Public Records Law
Hope that helps. Should the staff at UNCG fail to comply with your PIRT request I recommend you e-mail them this blog post and complain to the NC Department of Justice. It won't take but just a few complaints from prominent citizens with letters behind their names to get ol' Roy Cooper to launch a Grand Jury investigation.
Note: It was the stories of a hostile work environment at UNCG that prompted our team at EzGreensboro.com to start investigating UNCG months before Paul Mason was hired. We broke the story of the UNCG3 as a means of shining a light on that hostile work environment. While I've nothing to lose personally our embedded investigator could lose everything if discovered. And it's not like our embedded investigator has to do this. Our investigator is in a position that is mostly shielded from the problems most UNCG employees face.
Don't give in now. Don't give up and don't stop spreading the word. This person has taken huge personal risk for you.
