UC Regents Bans Employees From Posting Political Views On Department Website

The University of California Board of Regents approved a ban on University employees from putting political views on the front of University website homepages, with the Board saying they wanted to avoid any personal views being seen as official positions by the University.

The new rule, which was voted under the name Item J2, specifically mandates that only University operations information may appear on the front page of department websites. University faculty is allowed to post political opinion, but only on social media or on personal webpages.

“The University affirms the right of academic freedom while also fostering an inclusive environment,” read the J2 policy. “However, individual or group statements on political or controversial issues that are posted on Units’ websites and are unrelated to the Unit’s day-to-day operations are likely to be interpreted by the public and the community as the University’s institutional views.”

The rule was supposed to be voted on in March and May, but was delayed both times. In March, it was largely because of needed revisions. For the latter month, the high number of Gaza protests across California, including many on UC campuses, caused the delay. Regent Jay Sures, who proposed Item J2, said before the vote that they were careful to create a fine line between University policy and freedom of expression.

“These revisions included clarifying that statements regarding a department’s academic endeavors do not fall within the definition of discretionary statements,” said Sures. “This new document, I truly believe, is a better policy. It reflects that we value academic freedom, and it provides a very inclusive environment for the individual departments to put out statements. What you will see is other universities look at this policy and start implementing it. From the folks that have reached out to me, I have heard very positive feedback.”

Richard Leib, Sures co-author, added, “The policy is content-neutral. If the economics department put MAGA stuff on its website, it’s the same deal. It’s a content-neutral situation.”

Passage of Item J2

On Thursday, Item J2 passed. While the University breathed a sigh of relief, as they didn’t want to face potential lawsuits or have to explain away controversial statements, many departments and students criticized the action. Specifically, they said that the University was cracking down on pro-Palestinian and anti-Gaza War viewpoints.

“This is definitely an attack on free speech,” said “Manny,” a Teacher’s Assistant at UCLA who helps with creating content for his Department’s website, to the Globe on Friday. “Ever since we had the first Gaza protests here in April, they keep cracking down more and more. They sent in the police, stopped protests, arrested students, and now, with this rule they passed, faculty can’t even express themselves on their own websites. We can’t keep telling people why we are taking the pro-Palestinian position either.”

Despite this, the University system is expected to crackdown soon at each campus and remove any and all content violating the new policy.

“The University of California can do this once the Board of Regents votes to approve it,” explained legal advisor Sherman Waits to the Globe. “They did this week, so they can not only ask for each department to remove things from each webpage, but demand it. The websites will need to only post academic information, or post events or news, pertaining to the Department. Views on issues, especially divisive issues that could affect the University as a whole, will obviously not be allowed. And no, this doesn’t violate the first amendment. Now, if they told faculty not to post views on, say X, then it would be a different story. But they didn’t and it isn’t.”

It is currently unknown if any sort of legal challenge will be levied against the University system.