On December 18, 2013, the Kansas Board of Regents approved revisions to its policy on “Suspensions, Terminations and Dismissals” of faculty and staff of the seven universities and twenty-six community colleges and technical schools under its authority. In the revisions announced last week, the Board has imposed vague and overbroad restrictions on the use of social media by faculty and staff.
As an editorial published in The Kansas City Star on December 18 observed, “[t]he policy is in response to the uproar created by a University of Kansas professor’s inappropriate tweet and appears to be a ham-handed attempt to mollify conservatives in the state Legislature.”
In the aftermath of the Navy Yard shootings in mid-September 2013 in which a lone gunman killed twelve people and injured three others, KU journalism professor David Guth posted a tweet that read “The blood is on the hands of the #NRA. Next time, let it be YOUR sons and daughters. Shame on you. May God damn you.”
The Kansas State Senate leadership immediately called for KU to fire professor Guth and threatened to cut the university’s funding if he were not fired. On September 20, the university placed Guth on extended administrative leave.
The Regents’ new social media policy presents a major threat to academic freedom. Specifically, by couching the policy’s restrictions in vague and overbroad terms, the Regents have created an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty in which faculty and staff will likely suppress their expression of opinions and conclusions on controversial topics in order to avoid incurring the wrath of the administration and the state legislature. That is an unhealthy prospect for the academy in Kansas.
Because of these concerns, on Friday, December 20, 2013, the Legal Director of the ACLU of Kansas signed off on a letter of concern written by the Legal Director of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. The National Coalition Against Censorship also joined the FIRE and the ACLU. In the letter, we called for the Regents to rescind the ill-advised new social media policy and to issue a strong reaffirmation of the rights of freedom of expression and academic freedom on its campuses.
We will continue to monitor this situation, and we would like to hear about any instances in which the administrations of the Regents’ institutions enforce this social media policy.
Letter to Kansas Board of Regents
News Coverage
"Social media policy in effect for university staff", The Sunflower, January 21, 2014