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00:16

The Executive Branch Ethics Act states that ��ū�컨�� employees cannot use any ��ū�컨�� resources - meaning funds, facilities, equipment, services - for partisan political purposes. That phrase “partisan political purposes” has a specific meaning. It's the intent to differentially benefit or harm a candidate, or potential candidate, for elective office; or a political party; or a political group. It does not include having the intent to benefit the public at large, through the normal performance of our official duties.

This includes municipal elections as well. Even though municipal elections are supposed to be nonpartisan, they still fall within this definition of partisan political activity; so using ��ū�컨�� resources to support a candidate still counts as partisan political activity even if it's a municipal election.

01:09

Isn't that an infringement on our right to engage in political activity?

The EBEA doesn't tell us that we cannot endorse candidates, or campaign, or make donations in our individual capacities - we still have all those individual rights - it just says that we cannot use our access to ��ū�컨�� resources for those activities. Employees can endorse a particular candidate or take a position for or against a ballot proposition in their individual capacity; it just says that they can't use ��ū�컨�� resources in order to do so.

01:44

I've seen candidate debates on campus, is that permissible?

A candidate debate, as long as all the candidates are invited and treated equivalently, does not have the intent to benefit or harm any individual candidate, so does not violate the statute. And the people who within the university are working to set up those candidate forums are working to benefit the public interest at large through the normal performance of their official duties as long as they don't manifest any favoritism in setting those events up.

02:15

What about political rallies or party conventions held on campus?

If there's a meeting room, or arena, or other facility that ��ū�컨�� offers to rent out to individuals, or businesses, or other entities, those facilities can be rented out on equal terms for a campaign, or a political party, or a political group. As it's got to be on the same terms, and it's got to be on the same price that we would be willing to let it go out for a business convention or something like that. And we have to be willing to offer that same arrangement to any of the candidates running against that person. We would need to rent facilities out to campaigns in the same way that we would rent them out to any other entity.

03:04

Displaying or distributing partisan political material while engaged in an official ��ū�컨�� business is not permissible. If you are working off-site, you can have the campaign materials in your own home work area, just keep the materials out of the background when you're on an official Zoom call.

Activities on your own time and away from your work area, such as employees that wish to waive campaign signs on a street corner during their lunch time, are okay as long as you aren't using any ��ū�컨�� resources. So if you want to campaign, you can take personal leave or faculty time off and use that time for campaigning away from your work area. The university does not limit that to unpaid leave.

Employees can have their name listed in a campaign ad, but we recommend you not include your ��ū�컨�� affiliation or if your picture is going to appear in the ad don't have it taken by some ��ū�컨�� Landmark or containing a ��ū�컨�� logo.

It can be appropriate to list your profession, like college professor, since ��ū�컨�� is not the only college in Alaska, but avoid mentioning the University of Alaska by name.

04:22

What about legislators visiting a campus?

Legislators often have very good reasons to visit a campus to learn more about a particular program, or learn more about the university in general, that's not a violation of the EBEA. And we can arrange events to give legislators a tour or something like that.

We do try to be careful to caution the legislator not to turn the visit into a campaign event and similarly a political science professor might want to have a legislator come in to give a guest lecture on some topic - that furthers ��ū�컨��'s educational mission, and that's permissible; again assuming we're careful to avoid having it turned into a campaign activity.

05:08

What if I write an email to a legislator from my ��ū�컨�� email address about an important topic, would that get me into trouble?

We recommend for several reasons that when you're going to be writing to a legislator that you use your private email address for that and do so outside business hours. 

There are many reasons for that:

1. It's too easy to inadvertently step across the line between lobbying and electioneering. If I am telling a legislator “I want you to support this bill that's lobbying and that's not prohibited by the EBEA but if that email says I want you to support this bill and if you don't I'm going to start making contributions to whoever your next opponent is.” In this example I've crossed that line -- that's electioneering, and I can't use ��ū�컨�� resources for that.
   
   
2. Using a ��ū�컨�� email address can convey the impression that I'm speaking on behalf of the University. Regents' policies state that if I'm communicating with a legislator or with someone in the governor's office, the president has to authorize that kind of official communication. Even though it might not amount to a violation of the partisan political activity prohibition, it would violate this other Regents' policy about being an official spokesperson on behalf of the University.
   
   
3. Even if my email says I'm just talking in my personal capacity, for example because I'm on the board of my kids soccer league and I want support for funding intramural sports, remember the EBEA prohibits us from using ��ū�컨�� resources to further our personal or financial interests. So even though it may not be partisan political activity, if I'm using ��ū�컨�� resources to further my personal interests, that's still forbidden by the EBEA entirely aside from whether it's partisan political activity or not.
   
   
4. Even if it's something on which the president has authorized me to write an email to legislators – and this frequently comes up when somebody is targeting the university budget for cuts, and the president will say "we want to encourage you to have your input to the Senate finance committee or the house finance committee on this" some legislators when they see an email coming with a ��ū�컨�� email address down at the bottom will discount those points that you're trying to make in the email.
   
   
5. Sometimes we get complaints from legislators who have gotten emails from a ��ū�컨�� email address and we have to investigate those and even though if we look at them and decide this is not partisan political activity, it still takes time and resources to conduct that investigation, and so our strong recommendation is if you if you want to write to a legislator it's almost always preferable to do so using your private email.

Those aren't all the reasons, but they're some of the more important reasons why we always encourage if you're writing to a legislator or to somebody in the executive branch use your private email for that rather than a ��ū�컨�� email.

08:25

What about students who are not University of Alaska employees, but they use their ��ū�컨�� email address to engage in partisan political activities?

Well, the executive branch ethics act says that even though the students themselves if they're not employees are not bound by the EBEA, we cannot either use, or authorize the use by somebody else, of ��ū�컨�� resources. So if we learn of a student who has been sending out partisan political activity we do have a responsibility to not authorize that use by contacting the student and saying we would respectfully request that you refrain from using ��ū�컨�� emails for partisan political activity.

09:12

Student political clubs are allowed to use their own funds, including funding they have may have from the student government, in order to engage in partisan political activity that's why they exist in the first place as long as they don't abuse that discretion by doing something that would violate the EBEA or other provisions of law like trying to disguise funds that do come to the student political club from a political party.

But they do have more flexibility to engage than what we as University employees would be able to do as far as the political activity.

09:52

What if an employee wants to run for public office?

Well an employee doesn't have to resign from the University in order to run for office but may have to resign if they win.

If you're going to run you should disclose that as an outside activity through the outside activity disclosures that we've previously discussed, and the same is true if you're going to be a Treasurer or other have some other official role in somebody else's campaign. If you win, you may need to resign at that point.

State legislators are not allowed to hold a position of profit with the state, so would have to resign from a full-time ��ū�컨�� position before getting sworn in as a legislator.

Under certain narrow circumstances you might be allowed to continue to teach courses as an adjunct as long as it is temporary and non-salaried, but that's a fairly narrow exception. For the most part people who get elected to a municipal board or to a school board don't have to resign but would need to report that also as an outside activity.

If you get elected mayor it depends on whether it's a full-time job or not. If it is a full-time job as mayor then it may be not compatible to work full-time for both the mayor's office and for the University. Not because of any partisan political activity prohibition, but because the outside activity rules make it virtually impossible for any ��ū�컨�� employee to have two full-time jobs.

11:31

For more information check out the general counsel ethics website /counsel/ethics-information/.

If you have ideas for future compliance chats please send them to ua-compliance@alaska.edu.