Political Activity on Campus

To all Stony Brook Faculty and Staff,

As local and national political campaign activity increases, I want to remind all employees of the policies and rules on the use of university facilities, resources, and time for partisan political purposes.

Employees may:

• Participate in the political campaign process on their own time in their personal capacity without reference to their Stony Brook affiliation. There must be a clear separation between campaign activities and employment at the university.

• Make political contributions and be active during non-working hours.

 Employees may not:

• Use their positions to gain political favor. Encouraging or discouraging anyone to get involved with campaigns, including requests for political contributions or participation in campaign activities, is prohibited.

• Use university or state resources, including letterhead, computers, offices, phones, email, or listservs, for partisan political purposes.

Because your email is public, you may receive unsolicited political messages. Use of your Stony Brook University email address for activity not related to university work increases the risk of receiving these emails. Accordingly, you should use your work email for work-related activity as per the university’s Responsible Use of Information Technology Resources policy and the Division of Information Technology’s Use of Email policy.

Campus-Related Political Activities

We recognize the educational benefits of exposing students to political debate and information, including partisan political speech, and to making campus facilities available, consistent with our policies, to a wide range of speakers and expressive activities.

For more information on this subject, visit our Freedom of Speech and Expression, which includes details about hosting candidates on campus and other matters related to freedom of expression and political activity.

Other relevant resources include: 
New York State Commission on Ethics and Lobbying in Government

Fundraising and Solicitation on Campus Policy

If you have any questions about your engagement in political activity, please contact the appropriate Human Resources Office.

Questions related to hosting candidates on campus, civic engagement initiatives, and general political activities on campus should be referred to Carl Mills, Assistant Vice President for Government Relations, carl.mills@stonybrook.edu.

Thank you for your attention to these matters.

Sincerely,

Justin Fincher, PhD
Interim Chief Deputy to the President and Senior Vice President for Government & Community Relations
Executive Director, Stony Brook Foundation