Support The Daily Orange this holiday season! The money raised between now and the end of the year will go directly toward aiding our students. Donate today.

As universities across the United States struggle to define permissible technology use in the classroom, Syracuse University’s Office of Academic Affairs is seeking feedback from the SU community on a proposed policy that would ban recording in classrooms without clear consent from all speakers present.

The policy intends to protect students’ and faculty members’ privacy when participating in classes, preventing students from taking or publishing video or audio recordings of professors’ lectures in public forums and allowing students to speak without fear of humiliation or criticism from outside the classroom, according to OAA’s website.

“While the increased use of technology in the classroom has enhanced student learning, it also has led to some practices that threaten the classroom’s status as a space where faculty and students can safely express their viewpoints about a diverse array of topics,” Lois Agnew, interim vice chancellor and chief academic officer, and Allen Grovers, senior vice president and chief student experience officer, wrote in a Wednesday campus-wide email.

Under the proposed policy, faculty members would be required to notify students in their syllabi if class session recordings are a regular part of their course. Without explicit permission from all parties involved in discussion, all recordings would be banned.

If recordings aren’t a regular part of class routine, students can inform their professor in writing if they’re uncomfortable with being recorded in general, according to the release. Instructors must honor their student’s requests under the policy.

The proposal also prohibits any publicizing of recordings from classrooms without written consent from all students enrolled except in cases where professors consistently use recordings for “internal training purposes.”

SU’s policy proposal comes roughly five months after the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill developed a similar proposal, following allegations accusing UNC administration of recording a professor’s lectures for “review” without his consent multiple times.

Susanne Lohmann, a political science professor at the University of California Los Angeles, was similarly scrutinized by the school’s Center for Accessible Education after she told students she would fail anyone caught recording their peers in class.

Under SU’s policy, students would be banned from recording during class, unless they obtain permission from the professor and agree not to share their recordings or class transcripts online. Students who fail to follow the proposed guidelines would be subject to the Syracuse University Conduct System.

SU students and faculty who wish to comment on the Office of Academic Affairs’ proposed policy can submit feedback through its website.

Published on December 5, 2024 at 2:09 am

Contact Arabella: akklonow@syr.edu