privacy vs. public servants

This is a very interesting thread. But should university academicians working for state-supported institutions be subject to the same constraints on privacy and freedom from arbitrary search and seizure in their email and computer files as high federal governmental officials? I submit that the amount of (real or potential) oversight should be somehow proportional to the potential for harm or abuse of power available to the individual involved. Surely Ollie North or Richard Nixon had much greater abilities to subvert the democratic process or otherwise break the law than Professor Smith of the Chemistry Dept. of State U. Tom DeBoni (a state and federal employee with no power whatsoever)