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Worst IT Policies: Cheyney University of Pennsylvania鈥檚 email policy
With students having shifted to online learning during COVID-19, FIREis highlighting a selection of the college and university policies nationwide that most seriously restrict students鈥 online speech. Today, we鈥檙e looking at one of the nation鈥檚 worst email policies: The IT policy at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania.
Below, we鈥檝e included a link to the policy, as well as a link to information in our Spotlight Database 鈥 which tracks speech codes at over 450 schools across the country 鈥 so you can learn more. Cheyney鈥檚 policy below receives 果冻传媒app官方鈥檚 worst Spotlight rating: a 鈥red light,鈥 meaning the policy clearly and substantially restricts student speech.
Cheyney University of Pennsylvania
Excerpt (emphasis ours):
This policy applies to the Information Technology (IT) resources in offices, classrooms, labs, residence halls, etc. both on-campus and off-campus, all electronic media, including but not limited to: campus and State System of Higher Education networks and systems, electronic mail, listserv and mailing lists, discussion groups, social networks, Internet and World Wide Web access, electronic records. ...The following practices should be followed when using university e-mail: a) No person shall harass others by sending annoying, threatening, libelous, sexually, racially, or religiously offensive messages. This includes all materials deemed offensive by the existing university cold [sic] of conduct laws.
Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, a public university bound by the First Amendment, is legally required to uphold free speech on campus. Yet, it has this policy in place 鈥 which seriously threatens students鈥 expressive rights. Specifically, Cheyney鈥檚 policy is vague and impermissibly overbroad.
Vague policies fail to properly define their terms. Here, 鈥渁nnoying鈥 and 鈥渙ffensive鈥 are highly subjective terms that mean different things to different people. They have no legal definition and are therefore impossible to objectively police.
Vague policies are also often found to be overbroad. Precisely because their terms lack definition, they frequently limit too much conduct, sweeping in protected speech in the process. That鈥檚 what appears to be happening here. Cheyney purports to ban 鈥渁nnoying鈥 and 鈥渙ffensive鈥 messages without giving students any information on what kinds of expression might qualify. Accordingly, protected speech could likely fall within the policy鈥檚 purview. These kinds of overbroad policies are bound to chill student speech, incentivizing students to remain silent rather than risk punishment.
Cheyney鈥檚 policy is also extremely broad in scope, reaching all student conduct 鈥渙n-campus and off-campus,鈥 on every imaginable electronic platform, in every conceivable scenario. It purports to police protected student speech in situations in which students should be completely free from the oversight of campus administrators, such as within their private social media posts or personal, off-campus email exchanges.
Yet under this policy, Cheyney could, for example, punish a student鈥檚 private, off-campus emails to their parents that an administrator deemed 鈥渁nnoying鈥; or a student鈥檚 romantic social media message to a significant-other, or a message rejecting someone on a dating app 鈥 provided an administrator found it 鈥渙ffensive.鈥 This is unacceptable at a public university bound by the First Amendment.
The good news is that FIREis here to address and help fix bad speech codes. FIREwould advise Cheyney in this instance to focus instead on limiting 鈥渟ubstantially disruptive鈥 emails, which is a narrower way to target 鈥渁nnoying鈥 messages 鈥 without impacting protected speech. Likewise, banning 鈥渉arassment鈥 or 鈥渙bscenity鈥 鈥 both legally-defined categories of speech unprotected by the First Amendment 鈥 should take care of the kind of offensive content the university seeks to limit 鈥 without censoring protected expression in the process. We鈥檇 be happy to work with Cheyney to further bring its policies in line with best practices.
And FIREcan help at your college or university, too. If you鈥檙e a school administrator, student, or faculty member who wants help with crafting or fixing a policy at your institution, let us know at speechcodes@thefire.org. If you believe your rights have been infringed under such a policy, go to our website to submit a case.
Editor鈥檚 Note: This is the third in a multi-part series pointing out the country鈥檚 worst IT policies. Policies selected for this series either broadly apply to students posting/sending online content on or off campus or specifically target students鈥 social media use.
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