Dean's Emails Secretly Searched in Harvard, During Cheating Scandal, 'Any Assertion Harvard Routinely Monitors Emails is Patently False'

Harvard University officials are accused of secretly searched through 16 dean's emails last fall searching for information regarding a media leak about a widespread cheating scandal.

The New York Times and Boston Globe reported Harvard deans, whom belonged on the Administrative Board, the committee addressing the cheating, were never informed of the search.

The searches were limited to the dean's administrative accounts not their personal accounts.

Michael Smith, dean of the arts and sciences faculty, issued a statement stating, ""If circumstances were to arise that gave reason to believe that the Administrative Board process might have been compromised, then Harvard College would take all necessary and appropriate actions under our procedures to safeguard the integrity of that process, which is designed to protect the rights of our students to privacy and due process."

Smith described himself "as a computer scientist with more than a decade of experience on issues of privacy and data security" and concluded that he "would agree entirely with taking steps that found the right balance between our needs to respect the privacy of our employees and to protect the privacy of our students."

"Any assertion that Harvard routinely monitors e-mails -- for any reason -- is patently false," Harvard spokesman Jeff Neal told USA Today.

The Harvard Crimson covered the cheating scandal in September 2012 where about 125 students, "nearly half" of a large government class, were investigated after reports of problem in a take-home final exam in a class on Congress.

Last month the Harvard issued academic sanctions against about 60 students who were forced to withdraw from school temporarily.