The UC Board of Regents approved a new policy that limits how faculty can use university websites to express political opinions, such as criticism of Israel. The policy prohibits faculty departments and academic units from posting opinionated statements on the homepages of their websites. However, they can share such statements elsewhere on the site, as long as they add a disclaimer stating that the views expressed do not represent the entire university or the UC system.
During months of discussions with Academic Senate leaders, regents made several concessions. They allowed statements related to scholarly work to remain on homepages and permitted links to political statements on homepages. This ensures that faculty opinions are not confused with official university positions.
Departments that want to share political statements will need “develop and publish procedures” detailing how they plan to comply with the new policy. Each UC campus will implement the policy individually, with campus chancellors overseeing compliance.