Kansas Board Adopts Policy Allowing Discipline for Misuse of Social Media

The Kansas Board of Regents on Wednesday unanimously approved a revised social-media policy that allows leaders of the state’s public colleges to punish or fire employees whose postings are found to be improper, the Lawrence Journal-World reported.

The changes include statements that support academic freedom and free-speech rights. The board’s first version of the policy, approved in December, sparked an uproar among faculty members, and faculty leaders raised concerns that the revised document did not go far enough to resolve their concerns.

The newspaper said that more than two dozen protesters had attended the board’s meeting, warning that colleges would have to form committees to determine which social-media posts complied with the policy. Others said the policy would hurt the state’s ability to recruit top professors and would chill free speech.