Mike;

I think your general policy of attempting to forward mail whilst telling the
sender that that is all you are prepared to do (and not letting on whether you
know whether the addressee is actually a student of yours) is fine. You should,
of course, refuse to answer any later questions from them about whether you
succeeded in forwarding the mail, as this would incidentally give the enquirer
information about a student's current (or, at least, recent) status.

I suppose there is a theoretical danger here regarding emails. If you are sent
mail regularly by an organisation to whom students might sometimes owe money
(an on-line book or CD store, perhaps), then if the student isn't one of yours
and you tell them as much, then next time you tell them that you ARE attempting
to forward a message then they will put two and two together and deduce that
the individual IS a student of yours! This is all pretty theoretical, though.

In any case, my recommendation would be to tell all such senders (if they ask)
that you attempt to forward mail in ALL cases, but cannot report on the
results. If the addressee really isn't a student of yours then you CAN tell the
enquirer this (because you are not processing personal data about that
individual) though there may be occasions when it is sensible to be
circumspect. If you ever need to return surface mail it should be returned
marked "Not known at this address".

As regards destroying mail, my knowledge is limited on the matter but I suspect
destorying any piece of mail rather than assisting in getting it to the right
person (or returning it to sender) is an offence under the law relating to
"tampering with Her Majesty's Mail". I'm sure this was a major issue
when tricorn hats were the latest fashion, but no-one gives it too much thought
in these days of junk mailings and lost holiday postcards. Having said that, a
student of ours was done for this recently (can't remember why, though...).

Andrew Okey
Lancaster DP Project
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lloyd M J B (ISELS) [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 11 December 2001 10:13
> To:   [log in to unmask]
> Cc:   Okey, Andrew (E-mail)
> Subject:      FW: policy for dealing with unsolicited correspondence
>
> I had two replies on this, one saying OK to destroy a letter if the student
> is not at the intsitution, and the other saying the opposite, and suggesting
> it might be illegal to destroy such letters.
>
> Is there any advice Andrew Okey can give on this?
>
>
>
> Mike Lloyd
>
> Assistant Head (ISELS)
> ISELS
> University of Glamorgan
> Llantwit Road
> Treforest
> Pontypridd CF37 1DL
>
> tel: 01443 482417
> fax: 01443 482424
> email: [log in to unmask]
>
>
> > ----------
> > From:       Lloyd M J B (ISELS)
> > Sent:       Friday, December 7, 2001 14:10 PM
> > To:         [log in to unmask]
> > Subject:    Re: policy for dealing with unsolicited correspondence
> >
> > My thanks to those who have replied. And yes there is an inconsistency in
> > our current practice with regard to returning letters but not other types
> > of
> > correspondence.
> >
> > Anyone care to comment on the proposed policy? Are we entitled to destroy
> > letters rather than return them?
> >
> >
> > > >       "University policy when in receit of unsolicited correspondence
> > > > addressed to a possible student here.
> > > >
> > > >       The University policy is to neither confirm or deny that the
> > > person
> > > > is a student of the institution. The intended recipient will checked
> > > > against our database, in the case of letters and email. Letters and
> > > email
> > > > will be forwarded to a known address and it will be up to the
> > recipient
> > > > whether he or she replies. Telephone messages will be taken down
> > > together
> > > > with any identifying details of the recipient for later checking in
> > our
> > > > database. The message will be forwarded as above or deleted if that
> > > person
> > > > is not at this institution."
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > Mike Lloyd
> >
> > Assistant Head (ISELS)
> > ISELS
> > University of Glamorgan
> > Llantwit Road
> > Treforest
> > Pontypridd CF37 1DL
> >
> > tel: 01443 482417
> > fax: 01443 482424
> > email: [log in to unmask]
> >
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