West Visayas State University

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

La Paz, Iloilo City

Social Science 112 – ETHICS

Unit Three: Ethical Issues, Judgments, Arguments, and Dilemmas

E-mail Exposed (A Case Study)

Robert plays baseball for a small college in Texas. He's a high-profile player on the
team, so he's got a lot of Twitter followers and a large Facebook network. As a result, his
college's athletic board believes it is necessary to monitor his social media accounts. There
is no law in Texas that prohibits schools from requiring students to provide their personal
social media login and password information, so Robert is forced to hand over his social
media account information.

The goal of monitoring, according to university officials, is to identify potential

compliance and behavioral issues early on, allowing athletic departments to educate
athletes on how to present themselves online. They check Robert's posts on a regular
basis and flag specific postings with which they take issue.

Robert tweets one day, "Skipping class to break bad #schoolsucks #bettercallsaul
#breakingbad." Because Robert publicly admits to skipping class, school officials flag the
post and decide to begin monitoring Robert's email account without informing him.

Because the school provides email accounts as a service to its students and faculty,
it reserves the right to search the stored data on its own system. Administrators may
access student email accounts to safeguard the system or "ensure compliance with other
University rules," according to the college's student handbook. The policy does not specify
whether account owners must be notified that their emails are being searched.

When university officials searched Robert's email account, they discovered several
questionable emails between Robert and his tutor. Robert's tutor appears to have sent
him all of the answers to homework assignments and quizzes. Robert is placed on
athletic probation as a result of the investigation, and his tutor is fired.

Reflective Questions:

a. Should universities be allowed to monitor student email and social media

accounts? If so, under what circumstances?

b. Should Robert have been punished for cheating in class if he did not know his
email was being monitored? What about his tutor?

Instructions:

1. Read and study this case. Then answer the reflective questions provided.
2. You can write your answers in a half sheet of yellow pad or have it electronically-
printed on a short/A4 bond paper.
3. Sharing of responses during the class session. The outputs will be submitted
class time.