FSD 19-22 Faculty Electronic Communication Policy

Purdue University Northwest Faculty Senate

Discussion Date: 4/10/20

Senate Action Date:

Tabled/Approved/Rejected

Whereas, there formerly had been established a series of e-mail lists that could be used to communicate between faculty and staff, and an on-line Open Forum that allowed faculty, staff and retirees at Purdue University Northwest (hereafter, PNW) to communicate among themselves;

Whereas, these e-mail lists and Open Forum were automatically available to all faculty, staff and retiree e-mail accounts, unless they “opted-out” of the service and thus were deleted from the respective lists;

Whereas, these e-mail lists have been cancelled, and a former Provost arbitrarily cancelled the Open Forum without consultation with Faculty Senate;

Whereas, the PNW Administration established separate on-line e-mail lists for faculty, staff and (presumably) retirees, where are only available to members of the respective groups; and

Whereas, faculty, staff and (presumably) retirees can only join their respective e-mail list by “opting-in,” requiring that they notify the Information Technology Department of their desire to be included on the e-mail list;

IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED that

Unimpeded communication between faculty and staff at PNW is essential to the well-being of each;

That unimpeded communication is essential to the successful and efficient operation of Purdue University Northwest;

That it is important to immediately re-establish Open Forum and all other e-mail lists, by which any faculty or staff member can post messages to the rest of the university;

That all faculty and staff members be automatically added to the Open Forum e-mail list upon assuming a position at PNW or upon passage of this Resolution; and that the previous lists be re-established; and that retirees can request to join the Open Forum, whether they were previously members or not.  Participation by retirees, as well as continued participation by faculty, staff and retirees is dependent upon “collegial” participation, as determined by the Senate Executive Committee;

That it is recognized that, despite this impact, some faculty and staff members may not want to receive Open Forum messages, and thus the right of “opting out” is available to each upon their notification to Information Technology Department that they wish to not long receive messages from Open Forum;

That this Resolution be implemented immediately upon adoption, and that no changes can be made to this by any administrator without significant consultation with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, and approval by formal vote in Faculty Senate by a majority vote of present Senators at a duly established meeting.