Friday, February 21, 2003

Cal Poly Campus's Faculty Faces Battle Over Proposed Anti-Pornography Resolution By SCOTT CARLSON Faculty members at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo are preparing to do battle over academic freedom and harassment as they face an engineering professor's proposal to ban the viewing of pornography on campus computers. Linda Vanasupa, the chairwoman of the materials-engineering department, plans to file a resolution with the Academic Senate to prohibit using the university's computers or its Internet connection for viewing pornographic material. Academics and students would need permission from the university president to look at pornography online. The resolution will need a committee's approval to reach the Senate floor for a vote. "I think there is enough support that it will get to the floor," Ms. Vanasupa says. Unny Menon, a professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering and the chairman of the Academic Senate, says that the First Amendment would lead many faculty members to vote against the resolution. But, he adds, the resolution may also have a significant number of supporters. "It is very hard to predict which way things would go," he says. "There's been no straw poll at all. ... It is not as clear cut as some issues might be." The resolution comes in the wake of several recent scandals at Cal Poly. Last year, Robert Heidersbach, the former chairman of the materials-engineering department and Ms. Vanasupa's former boss, left the university after he was convicted on a misdemeanor charge for misuse of a state computer, to which he had downloaded thousands of pornographic images. And according to the local newspaper, The Tribune, the FBI is now investigating another former faculty member who allegedly used university computers to view child pornography. "There is a lack of sensitivity around this issue, and to me that is a form of hostility," Ms. Vanasupa says. "In a nutshell, I'm really concerned about women and children and the type world that we are creating for them." The language of Ms. Vanasupa's resolution, which would be added to the university's computer-use policy, states that people may not engage in the "transmission" of hate literature, obscenity, or sexually-explicit material. Those caught looking at pornography or hate literature "should be reported to the University Police Department," the resolution says. The resolution makes room, albeit with conditions, for academics or students who study such stuff. "Faculty and staff who need to access hate literature, obscenity or pornography for bona fide work purposes may petition the University President for a waiver. All granted petitions and waivers will be readily available to the public and campus community under the California Public Records Act." Paul J. Zingg, the campus's provost, says that Ms. Vanasupa's resolution "is fundamentally in opposition to the spirit of inquiry that is critical to the academy." "You're basically looking at a judgment of prior restraint that would have a chilling effect on inquiry and discourse on campus," he said. Mr. Zingg said that computer-use policies at Cal Poly already prohibit the viewing of child pornography and other legally identified forms of obscene material; the excessive personal use of state equipment; and the downloading of any images that could create a harassing or intimidating work environment. He said that he appreciates Ms. Vanasupa's attempt to deal with any hostility that she perceives on the campus, but that her resolution is too strict. "Under Linda's additions, there's no room for discussion of context," he says. "There is an assumption of wrongdoing of the individual who downloaded that image." Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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