In a highly controversial move last December, the Kansas Board of Regents adopted a policy allowing university professors to be terminated for posting unfavorable messages on social media about their institution. Now the regents are making moves to temper that original position, following recommendations from a working committee on social media comprised of members from every regent university. The Regents oversee six four year universities in Kansas, including Fort Hays State University.
“The Governance Committee is recommending that almost every word proposed by the social media workgroup be included in the revised policy. The revised policy also explicitly provides that it must be interpreted in accordance with First Amendment and academic freedom principles,” said Fred Logan, regent chair.
The board released their updated recommendations today.
“I want to again thank the members of the workgroup for their helpful consideration of this issue,” Logan said. “When you compare the original policy with the workgroup’s recommended policy, you will see that they have had a major impact on the Board’s work in this area. The revised policy will contain the strongest statement made by the Board anywhere in its policy manual in support of academic freedom and First Amendment expression.”
The original policy language as well as the new recommendations have been made available by the board here.
“The Committee intends to convene a special meeting in early May to review the revised policy language before forwarding the committee’s final recommendation to the Board for consideration. The Board of Regents will next meet May 14-15,” according to a press release announcing the recommendations.