Is opening people's mail at a private university a crime?

Answer 1

It is a federal crime to "tamper with the mails" that go through the US postal service. This includes opening mail intended for someone else without that person's permission, except for certain people who by law are either allowed or required to inspect "suspicious" mail.

The fact that it's a university may make a difference in two ways.

Firstly, universities (and especially private universities) are businesses. They're a special kind of business, but they're a business. Nearly all universities have some kind of campus mail system, and that's not protected by the same laws.

Secondly, it's common at businesses for certain people to be either implicitly or explicitly given permission to open mail for other people. Mail addressed to a teacher might be opened by that teacher's secretary (if they have one) or by a department secretary, for example. The terms of employment (or student conduct, or whatever) may explicitly require that you grant college personnel the right to open mail addressed to you at the university. If so, and you don't like it, you could go to the post office and get a PO box and direct anyone sending you mail you don't want anyone else to see to send it there instead.

That addresses physical mail, which is what I assume you meant. email is a different story. You probably signed something when you were given your university computer account that said that the university reserved the right to monitor any and all computer activity taking place on campus computer systems and networks, including but not limited to electronic mail, and that's perfectly legal.