ASUW Student Government
020 Wyoming Union
307-766-5204
asuwgov@uwyo.edu
The 103rd Administration
Associated Students of the
University of Wyoming
Chairman Rothfuss, Senator Case, Representative Throne, and Representative Lindholm:
As members of the Associated Students of the University of Wyoming Student Government, we have a responsibility
to serve our fellow students by representing their views and advocating for their interests. To fulfill our responsibility as
effective student leaders, we would like to express our support for the efforts being made by the Task Force on Digital
Information Privacy to protect the privacy of Wyoming’s students.
We are sincere advocates of the specific efforts made by the Task Force to draft new legislation exempting student
email from being searchable as public records under the current Act. It is our belief that this exemption is proper based
on the proposition that student e-mails are of no compelling public interest due to their nature as private
correspondence. We also emphasize our awareness of our obligation to University of Wyoming students in supporting
efforts to continue that their reasonable expectations of privacy will be protected.
We find no argument to the contrary persuasive enough to justify the inclusion of private student emails within the
parameters of the Public Records Act. Ensuring student email privacy will result in little to no diminution of the capacity
through which the University will be able to maintain its functions and objectives and will not significantly reduce the
public’s ability to monitor and thoroughly evaluate the University as a public institution.
In affirming our support for the important legislation with which your committee will continue to be engaged, we
would like to articulate the interests which are of greatest significance to us as representatives of our student peers.
Our interests in supporting the Task Force’s work in codifying the exemption of student emails from the Public Records
Act include the following:
1. We believe that students’ reasonable expectation of privacy concerning email communications must be
explicitly protected through any proposed legislation.
2. We are interested in ensuring that the principles of open governance and transparency remain protected in all
areas where there is a compelling public interest in full disclosure of information. We support efforts to clarify
areas where compelling public interest for full disclosure exists and where it does not. We, however, hold that
full disclosure of the contents of student email to the public does not serve a compelling public interest.
3. We recognize that ambiguity exists within the scope of the proposed student email exemption from the Public
Records Act, which is very reasonable by virtue of its specificity, and broader issues concerning exemptions for
other related but distinct forms of student data. ASUW Student Government is willing to represent the voice of
the students of the University of Wyoming in efforts to continue work addressing these broader issues.
In further consideration of the nature of student communications on university e-mail, the interest of the public, and
the intention of the Wyoming Public Records Act, the Associated Students of the University of Wyoming and
representatives thereof are pleased to collaborate with the Task Force regarding this specific proposed legislation. We
also look forward to opening the dialogue to include related discussions framing student data privacy, more broadly, as
this Task Force crafts additional for this purpose.
As elected representatives of our peers at Wyoming’s only four-year institution of higher education, we appreciate
your consideration of our concerns, and we support the Task Force’s efforts to protect student email privacy.
Sincerely,
Brian Schueler and Emily Kath-List ASUW Executives/Senators