Students Rebuke Universities’ Attempted Classroom Recording Bans
by Philip ChristofanelliFollowing my exposé this past spring of two Labor Studies professors at the University of Missouri who were using their positions to recruit students to the Communist Party and encourage the use of industrial sabotage, several universities have attempted to crack down on the recording of professors by students.
There are, no doubt, professors all over the country who are engaging in equally egregious teaching practices as Don Giljum (who reportedly resigned) and Judy Ancel (who’s now enjoying life as a Kansas City Occupier; she addresses #OccupyKC in the video below from 3:44 to 3:54 – hat tip to KansasWatchdog).
My guess is that enough professors complained to prompt faculty associations at both the University of Missouri and Washington University in Saint Louis (my alma mater) to pass resolutions calling for a ban on recordings in the classroom without the written permission of the instructor.
Unsurprisingly, students at both universities found these bans unnecessary and overreaching.
The Office of Judicial Programs at Washington University first proposed the ban on any recording, filming, or photographing of lectures without explicit permission. Soon thereafter, the Student Union Senate voted 6-12 to table the proposition, correctly observing that the rule change benefitted students in no way whatsoever.
After paying upwards of $45,000 annually to attend Washington University, students should be encouraged to record whatever they want. Regardless of how much a university would like to protect its reputation from its embarrassing professors, students should never doubt their right to record and disseminate class material.
The University of Missouri followed suit shortly thereafter with a new recording policy of its own. Their Faculty Council passed a similar ban on the recording of lectures without the consent of the professor. The Missouri Students Association responded with a resolution which defended students’ rights to record and share class material. The resolution passed with only one dissenting vote.
Students at both universities should be commended for fighting back. University professors have more job security than almost any other members of the American workforce. They do not need a whole new set of rules and regulations to protect their bad behavior from public scrutiny, especially when that behavior is heavily subsidized by the taxpayer, as was the case at the University of Missouri.
State legislatures should make clear to their university systems that the rights of students should always outweigh the job security of professors and the university’s public relations. Students across the country should be on the lookout for similar policies, and they should be prepared to push back whenever necessary.
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55 Comments
The facists on the left have to hide. They dare not let the light of day reveal them for the hideous leftists they are.
As a taxpayer funded institution most new discoveries and patents from such institutions ought to be in the public domain as well. These Professors live at the largesse of the public, their discoveries should be limited to a 5 year patent, then it should go to the public domain. Otherwise, get your own damn private funding Professor. The fact that certain professors use an excuse "to protect their intellectual property" in banning recording, is a BS excuse to prevent embarassing situations that would occur from student recordings given to the public for oversight.
Proving once again that socialism/communism has to hide under cloak, because if it's seen and heard as itself it's always rejected.
Which is why I highly approve the level of visibility Obama and his OWS hippies are giving socialism right now.
This is why Churchill was right about, " if you are in your twentys and not liberal you have no heart but, if you are in your thirtys and not a conservative you have no brains". I do remember in my twentys being very vulgar at times and it was because I had a right to say or think anything I wanted to, right or wrong, no censorship man. But now those leftist leftover ideologists want everything in opposition to their stupid schemes censored because for one they are the very definition of HYPOCRITES, and for another they have nothing that will sell on it's own merits. These people are mental illness in group form.
What was that movie where the teacher was absent with just a tape player playing a recording of the lecture and all the students were absent with just tape recorders in each desk recording the lecture???
If I was spouting some of the ideologically driven crap that some of our college professors are "teaching", I wouldn't want to be recorded, either. I'd be jumping up and down like a two year old, waving my union contract and shouting about this latest insult to my "Academic Freedom" (TM). Let's not forget what they did to Ward Churchill!
If more people, especially parents that are paying for their kids college tuition, knew what garbage many of the "professors" are professing I suspect that there would be something more severe than firing going on. And there should be.
Wasn't that Back To School w/ Rodney Dangerfield…?
What – you want to hold us to the same standards that we hold everyone else to….?
HOW DARE YOU!!!!!
Well…the professors are liberal enough to allow the inmates to challenge them for control of the asylum. Well professors, I hope your'e happy, this is what you get!
So in other words they need to hide what they are saying?
Doesn't this tell the whole story by itself?
THE ONLY GOOD COMMUNISTS ARE THE ONES FOUND IN DUMPSTERS???
Screw’em! Record them anyway, remember rules are for the other people. It’s the American leftist way.
As a professor at a large public university, I say: Students — record all you want! Although I'd prefer no video images, just because I'm not very photogenic. I learned many years ago (as a member of the military): Everything on my computer, every item in my office desk, every word I utter publicly is "fair game." The public is paying my salary, so the fruits of my labor are public property. If I don't want it recorded, then I shouldn't say it. That being said, I don't speak to the lowest common denominator in the classroom. Rather, I feel so passionately about the strength of conservative ideas and values, that I am motivated always to providing competing views. It's called "innoculation" and providing "counter-arguments." In the classroom, I provide the liberal/progressive view, as well as the conservative counter-argument. Students then are "innoculated" against accepting liberal drivel, unarmed with no competing conservative viewpoint.
Totalitarians always need to suppress opposition to thrive. The advocates of speech codes, thought crimes laws, the Fascist Doctrine, political speech restrictions, Card Check, etc are no different.
Gee, it is almost like the founders knew that those in positions of power would like to hide their antics and enumerated a way to ensure they could not operate under the cover of darkness……..
People keep saying the Big Ed bubble is going to burst. Please let it be soon. They'll be needing fresh blood down at Zucotti Park when the kids go back to mom's warm basement and the XBox. The faculty that taught these misfits all they know will fill the void perfectly.
Lights!
scurry scurry
See! nothing here.
thanks for keeping us updated Philip- much appreciated is your hard work and very important information!
All you have to do is say/write: "Rodney Dangerfield" and I laugh…
Turn on the light in the Kitchen of Washington University and the roaches scattered. Please tell me…why would anyone send their children willingly to a "school" such as this?
Your story is just one anecdote, but my sense is that most all conservatively inclined professors are of the same opinion on this issue. It's not the least bit ironic that students recording communist professors, trying to make new communists, precipitates this attempt to stifle students' ability to acquire knowledge and information.
It's what commies do, and they'd prefer to do it all private-like.
I still say that all classes in America need to be monitored by CCTV so that if a student complains, rightfully, that a teacher is going off Curriculum, that it can be proven.
If a teacher has nothing to hide about their teaching then the CCTV should be no problem. This will stop the indoctrination of our kids, while we pay the tuition.
Real Genius
I also teach at the college level. My students are welcome to record me any time. I take a different tack than ConservativProf, however, in that I don't tell my students what my personal views are on issues we discuss. They are too easily influenced–and silenced–as it is.
These cockroaches fear the light, so they try to ban the light. Kudos to the students for telling them to pound sand!
Very interesting. So much for transparency.
The families of most students pay THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS for learning and education in specific fields. Recording the instruction for this learning should therefore ALWAYS BE ALLOWED. Obviously, the only problem for the instructor/professor would be if their discussion went OFF POINT and into areas not in the course descriptions. This would be the same as taking the students $$ and giving them something other than what they paid for, which would be FRAUD, among other things. Therefore, as stated above, all classroom activity should be recorded by CCTV with copies available to any student who would simply supply the media for such copies. It's unbelievable that any college/university would attempt to ban the recording of what the student paid for in the first place. Unless, of course, they had something else there they wanted to hide…
if they're willing to say it in a public forum such as a classroom, then they have no excuse to not have it publicized.
What? The propagandized masses are fighting the push to tyranny? This actually surprises me.
The left imbue these youth with the idea that they must speak out against ‘the Man.’ Now, ‘the Man’ is the left, and, well, that’s different. What goes around comes are, and you better get use to it, ladies.
WoW ! three people standing there and not one of the con recite the Pledge correctly.. What a bunch of morons,,,
State Supported Schools have no right to privacy in the classroom. The facilities and the professors are paid for by the state and should be subject to the open meetings laws. Private institutions however do have some say in their private facilities, but if they even receive any public funds, for tuition or facilities that right to privacy should be waived.
The best antiseptic to socialist liberalism is sunlight…
The complaining professors and the faculty associations have just shot themselves in both feet.
Who are the people who won't allow recording and who are the people who voted for the ban. A list of names and their subjects blasted all over the internet won't make them happy…….heh,heh.
This makes it MUCH easier to target the Marxist profs or even just lame, worthless profs……..they'll be the ones who told us that they don't want to be recorded………Real smart, these intellectuals, huh?
There is another dimension not referenced in this article. Professor's often write textbooks and then require their students to buy the book as a course requirement. Such professors don't like recording not because such records expose their politics but because it potentially eats into their income.
Personally I was always flattered when students recorded my lectures. The last time I taught data base design there was a very quiet girl who recorded my every word. She got an A. She was way off the class curve.
Wait a minute. Video evidence is for destroying the right wing, racists, homophobes, not commie indoctrinateing, America hating, tenured professors.
The left aims at kids and college students because their mind is just like a piece of plain paper. The left can stamp anything they want on the paper and voila an army of socialists are here to serve. That why teacher unions are a threat to our Republic. We should outlaw teacher unions because it creates biased education. College professors are the same thing. They spread propaganda against capitalism. But it is hard to stop them because college students are considered adults.
Thank-you Mr. Cristofanelli for enlightening us to what is occuring on today's campus. I am pleased that young men & women such as yourself have found these Liberty Trees to express your concerns for liberty. Keep up the good work.
“Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light.” George Washington
Why Are We Allowing Kids To Be Held Hostage By a Government Monopoly?
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/10/26/why-are...
"The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves."
George Washington
We want….. we want…………. we want………………….
whatever happen to JFK's idea of "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country"
How Ironic..these greedy immature idoits got their hand out greedily demanding something for nothing….as a form of protest, against greed
I suspect the number of teachers who think it is their mission in life to "guide" their students in the "right" direction (meaning the liberal direction) free from any interference from those students' "reactionary" parents is pretty high.
Taxpayer — I appreciate your viewpoint (really). However, just like your own kids, students KNOW your viewpoint — you might as well admit it up front. The correct tact is to make all students feel welcome to offer supportive AND opposing views, and to require all students to back up their views with facts.
Like the art teacher who does not use his work as examples, I don't share my views because I want my students to bear full responsibility for their writing. I tell them they have absolute academic freedom in my class–that is, they must choose their own topics. When I say this, there is first a moment of stunned silence. Then: "You mean we can write about ANYTHING?" For many, it's the first time they have NOT been told what to write. Isn't that sad?
I also tell students that my viewpoint is irrelevant to their goal of writing a solid argument. In fact, they must tailor their arguments to specific audiences, none of whom are me. By removing myself from the equation, I've found the students actually make more effort to learn the craft of argumentation. Best of all, they are not afraid to take risks because they know they don't have to toe the teacher's line.
This method has worked for my students over the 12 or so years I've used it. I find it more gratifying to watch them construct their own arguments than parroting mine. I wish more instructors felt the same way.
If anyone is familiar w/University of Missouri in Columbia, you know it is one of the most liberal universities in America, along with the Columbia Tribune newspaper.
Wasn't that also used in the television show Drexel's Class?
I'm worried about what is in the curricula to begin with. Political correctness is baked into the textbooks and the curricula and the university's codes of conduct from the get-go. It's all part of the Gramscian "long march" through the culture and the institutions.
Taxpayers' money and parents' money and alumni money and (heaven forbid) student loan money in ever-increasing amounts have gone to create a tuition bubble. [LINK] Solution: postpone college until the bubble bursts and some major housecleaning is done and the universities are no longer indoctrination factories.
Darn, someone beat me to it.
(IIRC, it started with an ever-increasing number of student tape recorders and then Mitch(?) walks in to find the classroom full of tape recorders and the professor's counter has one on it's own with a "press to start lecture" sign taped to it.)
And a note on the chalk-board saying: "Learning by tape isn't easy so pay close attention"
Agreed. It has to be changed the same way that they changed it in the first place, class by class, semester by semester. Otherwise the "Freeze-dried Hippie Socialists" of the 60s will continue to crank out little Socialists.
Our plan should include textbook monitoring and editing. Yes, this is a daunting task but I believe that we have have to do it with active parental involvement. Parents surely have an opinion of whether or not they want their children to be indoctrinated into socialism, starting in grammar school.
We also need to start strong vetting of the teachers for loyalty to American values and culture.
Where we are today took decades of brainwashing, so we need to be tenacious about reversing their teachings in our children's schools, and in their vulnerable minds. We can change it.
After all, we have to protect and defend our American values & culture, rather than have treasonous public officials inflict their foreign paradigms on US.
That's why so many parents are homeschooling these days.
Yes. We have to preserve our American values and culture somehow. I think that we are in the majority in America, despite the radical aggressive Anti-American Dem Socialists who are making all of the noise.
Along with them are the Union Dems supporting this Anti-American Administration led by Obama, Holder, Jarrett, Axelrod, Clinton and the nefarious Czars. What a bunch of traitors. What's taking so long to get their investigations and prosecutions for High Crimes against a Nation? I don't know. It's exasperating.
are you the same guy I saw on youtube saying you burnt a cop car and your friend was shot in New York?your just as big a piece of s**t as the professors
here is the clip http://youtu.be/2R3iyJk3ujg
These Professors live at the largess of the public, their discoveries should be limited to a 5 year patent, then it should go to the public domain. Otherwise, get your own damn private funding Professor. The fact that certain professors use an excuse "to protect their intellectual property" in banning recording, is a BS excuse to prevent embarrassing situations that would occur from student recordings given to the public for oversight. appliancesblog
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