The UC Regents adopted the Regents Policy on Public and Discretionary Statements by Academic Units (J2) at the Regents meeting on Wednesday on UC San Francisco’s campus. The policy will “mitigate” administrative websites from posting statements and opinions that could be “mistaken as the position of the institution itself.”
The policy was introduced in January 2024 and its draft was then reviewed by the UC Academic Senate on March 20. According to the policy’s text, J2 ensures that the homepages and websites of an administration should “be used only for information regarding the operations of that Unit,” and that it should not “express the personal or collective opinions of Unit members.”
Faculty members, groups and their administrations can only express opinions and statements on separate pages of a UC website if their statements are “consistent with procedures adopted,” and include a “disclaimer that the opinions do not represent the official views of the University.”
J2 notes that UC Davis is the only campus to have a policy on administrative websites in its Policy and Procedure Manual. The document also stated that UCLA, while considering adopting a similar policy, shared their draft and creation process with the Regents back in March.
The Academic Senate returned the draft of the policy in May with concerns of “uncertainty” regarding possible interpretations of the policy and its classification of discretionary statements. The senate asked for clarification on certain aspects of the J2, including academic research surrounding political topics as well as improved implementation guidelines.
At the policy’s adoption, the Regents stated that J2 “balances academic freedom and individuals’ freedom of speech with speech on behalf of the University.”
Skylar Paxton is the Summer 2024 Co-Managing Editor. She can be reached at paxtons@uci.edu.
Edited by Annabelle Aguirre
