6/17/2011: From Nigel Jaquiss at WWeek:
“We have made mistakes in a small number of high profile cases,” Kroger said in a statement. “This week, I learned that in addition to these errors, Chief Counsel Riddell had deleted a large number of government e-mails under the mistaken belief that they had been backed up on computer tape. Although we were able to recover many of the deleted e-mails, an unknown number have been lost permanently. The Department of Justice must scrupulously uphold its obligation to preserve government records.
The classic way to do this is delete the emails and empty your trash before the nightly backups. I certainly hope none of UO’s lawyer’s have been suggesting that our administrators do this.
Curious that UOMatters would suggest such a thing. Last year during a meeting of about six OAs our meeting chair quoted Randy Geller about doing this very thing.
I’d heard this rumor as well. I asked Randy Geller for clarification, and got this response, which seems worth posting here:
Prof. X,
Thank you for alerting me to this false and defamatory rumor.
I would appreciate your assistance in tracking down the purveyor of this lie. Please identify the person or persons who provided this information so that I may take appropriate action.
I would also appreciate your correcting anyone who repeats this rumor. …
I would also appreciate your alerting me to other instances in which you hear this rumor because repeating it would be considered defamation per se.
Thank you again for bringing this matter to my attention.
Randy Geller
Deputy General Counsel
University of Oregon
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Randy Geller sent the email above to me in October 2010. I haven’t heard any more about it. Obviously UO Matters is a news organization and will take all appropriate measures to protect the confidentiality of its sources should it come to that. I do not expect it will.