Harvard University Fired the Chekhov's Gun

The Chekhov's Gun dictates that if one shows a loaded gun on stage in the first act of a play, it must be fired by the third act.

Professor Michael Smith was known for inventing methods to enable unauthorized secretive search electronic archive.

Harvard University hired Professor Michael Smith as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Professor and Dean Michael Smith ordered a secret search to email accounts of 16 resident deans, when Harvard was not happy to find a cheating scandal was leaked to the outside world.

As any educated reader would predict, the 'secretive' search was leaked. This morning, Harvard issued an announcement that it did not 'routinely' read emails.

With an endowment as large as Harvard, $30 billion last checked, Harvard University should not cheap itself on a qualified legal counsel. A federal appeal court had ruled that had an employer not conducted screening of work issued accounts, employees would have reasonable expectation of privacy.