The presence of digital pornography on the computer screens of students at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo is at risk after an engineering professor decided to pursue prohibition of the material.
Linda Vanasupa, professor and chairwoman of the materials-engineering department, is working on a resolution that she plans to file in April to the Academic Senate. The resolution asks for prohibition of the use of university’s computers or its Internet connection for viewing pornographic material.
In order for students and faculty to use these university-owned devices for viewing of this sort, permission from the university president would be required.
The resolution currently in the works, entitled “Resolution to enhance civility and promote a diversity-friendly campus climate,” reads, “The current computer responsible-use policy implicitly authorizes faculty, staff and students to use state computing resources to access pornography and hate literature for personal purposes.”
This, Vanasupa said, is her main problem. She said her main reason for creating this resolution is that she discovered policies banning this material do not already exist.
Unny Menon, professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering and the chairman of the Academic Senate at Cal Poly, said the policies Vanasupa wants to create are already included in general terms.
“She wants Cal Poly to spell it out all clearly, [like] some universities have done,” Menon said.
Menon also said this resolution has created controversy and acknowledged that there are people on both sides of the issue.
“Some people are more confused over what the First Amendment means,” Vanasupa said.
Even with that confusion, Vanasupa has noticed growing support for her proposal.
“I’ve received more support than hate mail,” Vanasupa said. However, she said, “it turns out there are many people who don’t want me to file this. They may be successful.”
If Vanasupa continues her process of revising the resolution and ultimately decides to file it, she said she still doesn’t know whether it will pass in the Senate. Menon agreed and said he was uncertain whether a resolution of this sort would pass. He also said that officials are looking for a way to resolve the matter without taking the issue all the way to the Senate.
Cal Poly has had its share of incidents regarding the viewing of explicit content in recent years. Last year, the former chairman of the materials-engineering department, Robert Heidersbach, was convicted on a misdemeanor charge for misuse of a state computer. Heidersbach was charged with downloading thousands of pornographic images. He left the university soon after the charges were levied against him.
In addition, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating a case involving another former faculty member who allegedly used Cal Poly’s computers to view child pornography.
The University of Wisconsin has no policy prohibiting the viewing of pornography and other explicit content as long as it is university -related.
Access to Division of Information Technology resources are a privilege granted to members of the university community, which carries with it the responsibility to use them for university-related activities.
“Exercising common sense and civility” is a common theme for UW’s appropriate-use policy.
Brian Rust, DoIT’s communications manager, said the policies that could be enacted at Cal Poly wouldn’t work at UW.
“It would never fly on a Madison campus,” Rust said. “Even a higher-education institution has the right to free and open discourse.”
