Regental Policy on Departmental Website Use

There is now more detail available on the Regents' upcoming agenda. One of the issues to be taken up is the use of departmental websites for political statements. The Academic Senate dealt with this issue in the past and came up with guidelines for such use. However, the guidelines were not mandates and generally seem not to have been followed.

The Regents will take up the issue of departmental political statements at their upcoming meeting. More details on the policy to be proposed by the Regents are now available on the agenda.* 

The introductory material to the Regents item indicates that official departmental websites are maintained only to provide information on courses, events, etc., and that other use conveys to the public that the views expressed are official university opinions:

...Expressions of the personal or collective opinions of unit members or of the entity is not the official business of the entity. Other means of publicly conveying such opinions are available. Individual or group statements that are posted on the University’s official channels of communication are likely to be interpreted by the public and the community as the University’s institutional views, as opposed to individual or group speech. To avoid any such confusion, the proposed Regents Policy would provide that the official channels of communication to conduct the business of the University should not be used for purposes of publicly expressing the personal or collective opinions of unit members or of the entity...

The actual proposal to be voted on reads:

Regents Policy on Use of University Administrative Websites

POLICY TEXT

Upholding the values of freedom of speech and inquiry are core to the University of California’s mission. Under the First Amendment and principles of academic freedom, faculty members, individually and collectively, have the right to express their views. While individual members of the University community are free to express constitutionally protected viewpoints through all non-official channels of communication, they may not associate the official administrative units of the University with their personal viewpoints. Long-standing principles of academic freedom have recognized that when faculty members speak or write as citizens, they should make every effort to indicate that they are not speaking for the institution.

The University of California establishes websites and other official channels of communication maintained by the schools, departments, centers, units, and other entities for purposes of conducting the official business of the University and these entities. Examples of an entity’s official business may include delivering informational resources about the unit, such as course descriptions, and communicating personnel changes, dates of upcoming events, the release of new publications, the issuance of new policies, and similar activities. The official channels of communication, including the main landing pages of websites, of schools, departments, centers, units, and other entities should not be used for purposes of publicly expressing the personal or collective opinions of unit members or of the entity, as other means of publicly conveying such opinions are available.

Notwithstanding the above, the Chair of the Board of Regents, the President, the Chancellors, and the leadership of the Academic Senate, may use the official channels of communication to comment on matters of University or public import, and such use by these spokespersons shall be deemed to be conducting official University business for purposes of this policy.

Nothing in this policy shall limit the use of any privately-maintained resource or other nonUniversity media by any member of the University community for any purpose. This policy shall be construed in a manner consistent with the First Amendment and other applicable laws.

COMPLIANCE/DELEGATION

Any questions concerning the application of this policy shall be referred to the administrator responsible for maintaining the website and such administrator shall be responsible for assuring compliance with this policy.

NO RIGHT OF ACTION

This policy is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the University of California or its Board of Regents, individual Regents, officers, employees, or agents.

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*https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/jan24/j3.pdf.

**https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/jan24/j3attach1.pdf.

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Note that the proposed policy could be enacted as currently worded, modified, or rejected during the discussion.