E-mail Privacy

[michael vincen conca]

I am the system administrator for a group of research scientists in the
psychology department here.  Today I was presented with a rather touchy
situation:

Aproximately 1 month ago, a certain employee was advised that he/she was
was acting in an inappropriate manner and that they needed to make 
certain adjustments in their attitude.  A meeting was held between the head
manager and this employee in which the above issue was discussed.  All of
this was summarized in a memo which was E-mailed to the employee.

Yesterday, this employee was terminated.  He/she was allowed to gather
their things and purge all of their personal files from the system.  Today,
my boss asked if it would be possible to retrieve this employee's E-mail
off of backup, find the memo, and print it out in case it was needed as 
evidence in a possible court case.

Now for the tough questions.
	Is this legal?  Is this ethical?  If this person still worked
here, I would immediately refuse.  But since they don't, do they still
have any rights to their E-mail?  Right now, I am leaning towards refusing
because I think a person's E-mail is theirs, regardless of their status
with the organization.  Anyone have any other opinions on this?

								-Mike

-=*=--=*=--=*=--=*=--=*=--=*=--=*=--=*=--=*=--=*=--=*=--=*=--=*=--=*=--=*=-
Mike Conca, Computer Science Dept.   *  conca at handel.cs.colostate.edu
Colorado State University            *  conca at 129.82.102.32
   "Everyday, as the network becomes larger, the world becomes smaller."