The policy, sent by the department of Human Resources, contains guidelines by which employees are to obtain and release university information. Faculty and administrators disagree on the purpose of this confidentiality policy. Administrators defend the policy, saying it has always been university policy and is not new.
Some faculty disagree feeling the policy goes beyond privacy issues.
These faculty are considering a vote of no confidence in the administration. Lois Goldstein, director of Human Resources, said the department is reviewing the university's policy and procedure handbook in preparation for putting it online in January. Goldstein said she felt the policy was important enough to review with university employees even though it has not been a problem in the past. She said as far as she knows, policies like this one are standard at a lot of universities. It safeguards the staff and the university.