Good morning, and welcome to Thursday, March 21. Rick Seltzer wrote today’s Briefing. Julia Piper compiled Comings and Goings. Get in touch: dailybriefing@chronicle.com.
Just don’t say it here
Do political statements have a place on academic departments’ websites?
The University of California regents punted Wednesday on proposed speech restrictions for academic departments’ home pages. The board voted to delay consideration of a much-watched policy proposal until their next meeting, in May, after several regents worried the timing and specifics weren’t quite right.
The controversial policy came up for debate after a long back-and-forth sparked by university and department statements about the violence and human toll in Israel and Gaza.
- Jay Sures, a Hollywood talent agent who is a UC regent and supporter of Israel, had pushed for the speech restrictions, arguing that departments should remain neutral, Politico reported. The UC Ethnic Studies Faculty Council has called for his resignation, accusing him of “jingoistic and dehumanizing language” and “treatment of Palestinian life as an afterthought.”
The policy would bar faculty and staff members from sharing “personal or collective opinions” on departmental home pages. Such opinions could be shared on other department websites, as long as it’s clear they don’t reflect the views of the university or everyone in the department.
What kind of statements are we talking about? Here’s an excerpt of one from the critical race and ethnic studies department at UC-Santa Cruz:
This week’s decision to delay came after regents had already revised a more-restrictive proposal that was floated before a January meeting. It would have barred political statements from any “official channel of communication,” EdSource reported.
UC’s Academic Senate opposed the more moderate policy considered on Wednesday, although people there acknowledge that faculty members have a range of feelings about it.
This isn’t the first attempt to restrict speech on departmental websites. Our Len Gutkin analyzed in January a similar policy at Barnard College. The University of California debate is particularly important because of the 10-campus system’s size and prominence — and because, as a public institution, it’s subject to strict speech protections under the First Amendment.
The bigger questions: Are departmental home pages professional spaces meant to deliver only basic information to broad constituencies? Or can they be platforms for faculty members to feel free to express views on topics that are important to them and to their disciplines? If it’s the former, who determines the line between information and opinion?
