Subject: Urgent Notice of Subpoena
January 28, 2009
Dear UCSB Student,
On January 13, 2009, the University was served with a subpoena requiring it to produce certain records containing personally identifiable information about you and other students at UC Santa Barbara in connection with a lawsuit filed in Santa Barbara County Superior Court entitled “Steven Pappas v. Doreen Farr.” It is the University’s understanding that the lawsuit concerns a recent election involving Mr. Pappas and Ms. Farr. Neither you nor the University is a party to this lawsuit. A copy of the subpoena describing the records sought and the legal action or proceeding to which it relates is available for your review at http://www.sa.ucsb.edu/Subpoena.pdf.
Before an educational or public institution releases student educational records or individual personal data in its possession pursuant to a lawfully issued subpoena, the institution must first put the individual on notice of its receipt of the subpoena and afford the individual a reasonable period of time in which to take the appropriate legal steps to block the release of the records sought. Therefore, please note that, unless within ten days from the date of this letter, by February 9, 2009, you serve upon the University and the requesting party’s attorney written objections, the University intends to forward to the requesting party the following educational records and/or personal data specified in the subpoena, including information about you: the names, addresses, dates of birth and citizenship of all students, graduate and undergraduate, enrolled in UCSB in fall quarter 2008.
IF YOU WISH TO OBJECT TO THE RELEASE OF THE INFORMATION DESCRIBED ABOVE, COMPLETE THE FORM AT: http://www.as.ucsb.edu/objection/. The subpoena also seeks other records which may or may not include personally identifiable information. The University is continuing its review of potentially responsive records. If there are additional responsive records with personally identifiable information, the University will notify affected students prior to releasing the records to the requesting party. Please also note that the University is in the process of obtaining a court order that will limit the use of any personally identifiable information provided by the University to this litigation only.
You may review section 1985.3 of the California Code of Civil Procedure, which discusses the issuance of and objections to subpoenas for personal records, at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=ccp&group=01001-02000&file=1985-1997. If you have general legal questions, you may also contact the AS Legal Resource Center at http://www.as.ucsb.edu/legal/. You may view a signed copy of this letter at http://www.sa.ucsb.edu/NoticeofSubpoena.pdf.
Sincerely,
Michael D. Young
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
