FACULTY ASSOCIATION RESOLUTION ON PRIVACY, PERSONNEL FILES AND
ELECTRONICALLY SOURCED INFORMATION

WHEREAS every Californian has a constitutional right to privacy as stated in
Article 1 of the California constitution,

WHEREAS California Civil Code Section 1798 specifically protects personal
identifying information including one’s name, date of birth, age and social
security number from release without prior written consent,

WHEREAS Article 18.5 of the Faculty Association contract states that “any
information contained in a faculty member’s personnel file … shall not be
released to anyone … without first notifying the faculty member”,

WHEREAS the District manages electronic databases that include information
about each faculty member originally sourced from a faculty member’s
personnel file and has not afforded an equal protection to this electronically
sourced information as it has protected the original paper documents,

WHEREAS in the past, the District inadvertently revealed the social security
numbers of certain faculty members without prior written consent,

WHEREAS the District recently released the names and ages of 570 female
employees to facilitate an external research study without providing any prior
opportunity for those women to opt-in or opt-out of this release,

WHEREAS a lack of privacy may have a chilling effect on faculty participation in
future college initiatives,

BE IT RESOLVED that the Faculty Association of Santa Monica College instruct the
Chief Negotiator to request a meet-and-confer with the District to discuss a
Memorandum of Understanding that protects all personal information including
electronically-sourced information from any future disclosure and to create an
opt-in and an opt-out procedure.

Approved by the Representative Assembly, Nov 6, 2008