CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Harvard University administrators on Monday offered an explanation for secretly searching resident dean emails last fall for the source of a leak to the media about a cheating scandal, saying the searches were done to protect confidential student information.
Faculty of Arts and Sciences deans Michael Smith and Evelynn Hammonds said in a statement posted on the university's website that after consulting with university lawyers, Harvard conducted a "very narrow, careful, and precise subject-line search."
The email accounts belonged to deans on the Administrative Board, a disciplinary committee addressing the cheating, The Boston Globe and The New York Times reported Sunday, citing school officials. The deans were not warned about the email access.
"While the specific document made public may be deemed by some as not particularly consequential, the disclosure of the document and nearly word-for-word disclosure of a confidential board conversation led to concerns that other information — especially student information we have a duty to protect as private_ was at risk," they said in Monday's statement.
The secret searches drew criticism from some faculty and staff at Harvard.
Monday's statement said the search was limited to the administrative accounts of the resident deans.
"To be clear: No one's emails were opened and the contents of no one's emails were searched by human or machine," the statement said.
That search found that an email from a disciplinary board had been forwarded from a resident dean to two students. That dean was not identified.
