For bureaucrats in their cubicles, yes, this is normal corporate network management. You have no expectation of privacy at work; if you want that, go home.

As a student, though, the university is also your home ISP. And the public WiFi at the coffee shops, libraries, etc. In this context, reading your users' email is way less okay.

Don't think of UCB IT as the BigCo IT department, but as Comcast.