FA President Dante Morelli, above, presented at this year's Professional Development Day about academic freedom and best practices for faculty and student privacy during remote teaching.

Concluding our first fully remote semester, we've all learned some important lessons. I now have a better sense of what works and what doesn't and will continue to learn in the spring semester.

Many questions came into the FA in the past months about faculty and student rights and responsibilities in a remote environment. Things are different: We cannot look around and see who is and is not in our classes. No longer surrounded by four solid walls, we don't know who is and is not listening to our classroom conversations. When we record our lectures and post them, we cannot always know where else they might end up.

To help FA members navigate some of these tricky issues, the FA had offered to develop a presentation for this year's Professional Development Day on October 13. The presenters were Dante Morelli, FA president; Nina Acquavita, chair of the Eastern Campus Congress; and Ashley Pope, deputy general counsel in legal affairs.

I share my notes from each of their presentations below, since this information can be valuable to so many of our members.

Academic freedom and the FA contract

FA President Dante Morelli presented first.

Morelli noted that the FA has long included the 1940 American Association of University Professors' academic freedom statement in our contract as Appendix B. (We recognize that the language is quite dated and plan to address this in our revisions the next time we open up the entire contract for negotiations.)

Appendix B makes plain that faculty are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subjects, but we advise faculty to be careful not to introduce into their teaching controversial matter that has no relation to their academic subject of their course.

Academic freedom is not limitless, Morelli noted. It does not mean that faculty can say whatever they want to say in the confines of their classroom. He explained, “Free speech is a legal right, while academic freedom is an issue of employment. We are bound by the institution’s rules, norms and standards of academic integrity.”

Morelli said, “Don’t teach opinions as facts because students have the right to be taught knowledge.” He also advised faculty to be mindful at all times of the connection between classroom discussion and course learning outcomes as well as the need to foster a learning environment that allows for robust, respectful discussions on relevant course topics.

The SCCC anti-discrimination policy addresses this as well:

Members of the college community are encouraged to participate in all aspects of academic life. For the college, this means a firm institutional commitment to academic freedom as well as a commitment to the highest standards of professional and interpersonal behavior and respect among members of the community.

Class recordings

The second presenter was Nina Acquavita, chair of the Eastern Campus Congress.

Acquavita shared advice about discussion of controversial topics, noting that this can be especially challenging in a remote teaching setting. She suggested that faculty make their expectations for student participation clear in advance, particularly for class meeting by videoconferencing software (Zoom, MS Teams, Collaborate). When teaching via videoconference, before requiring that all students must turn their videos on, faculty should consider legitimate student needs for privacy.

If you make recordings of yourself as the instructor and/or your course materials only (being mindful of any copyright or intellectual property issues for what’s included in your recordings), Acquavita said, those are not protected by FERPA and can be made available to your students in Blackboard or via SCCC email. Communicate to students what are permissible uses of those recordings regarding their distribution, sharing or posting.

If you make recordings that include any personally identifiable student information such as the names, images, questions, comments or presentations of students, those are protected by FERPA. Acquavita indicated that these recordings

• may only be made available to students in that class (if you wish to share a recording with students in other sections, you must have written consent of any and all students who personally identifiable information is in the recording; contact your campus dean of faculty for information)
  
  
• must be stored and shared using only college-approved systems, preferably Blackboard
  
  
• must be shared with explicit notice that it’s for personal study use only and cannot be shared or reproduced in any fashion (there are settings in Blackboard that prevent downloading).

Student and faculty privacy in the remote classroom

Addressing privacy concerns was the final presenter Ashley Pope, deputy general counsel, who shared some information from the U.S. Department of Education’s Student Privacy Policy Office.

To protect student privacy, it is appropriate and recommended, Pope said, to discourage non-students from observing your virtual classrooms in the event that personally identifiable information (PII) about students is disclosed. Faculty may “instruct students participating in your virtual classroom that they are not to share or record any PII from education records that may be disclosed in your virtual classroom.”

Echoing Acquavita, Pope noted that the college asks faculty to “please respect students’ decision to turn off their webcams” outside of course activities for which visual presence really is needed, such as for remote proctored exams, in-class presentations by students and performance-based activities. Pope suggests that faculty could take attendance and then allow students the option of turning off their webcams, or they can take attendance using the chat feature.

The college recognizes that faculty have privacy rights as well. The SCCC College Catalog has language regarding student use of electronic devices for recording audio and video during class—whether that class is on campus or remote:

Students’ use of cell phones, computers or other electronic devices during classes may be regulated according to course policies established by individual instructors. Misuse of such devices may subject students to provisions of the Student Code of Conduct relating to disruptive student behavior. Unsanctioned use of such devices may carry serious penalties, including but not limited to course failure or dismissal from the college. Exceptions may apply to students with documented disabilities who may need to use a device as an approved accommodation.

Therefore, Pope noted, faculty “may instruct students that they may not audio record any portion of a lecture, class discussion or course-related activity without your prior and explicit permission.” This instruction must be in writing and made available to all students, such as in the course outline.

If you choose to permit a student to record during class, Pope advises that faculty should notify the entire class in advance that it may be recorded. Faculty also have the right to ask the student to pause the recording during any point in the class if personal or confidential information is being shared.

Finally, Pope said, the student’s recording should be audio only and should be used for personal study use only and not shared, reproduced or posted in any fashion without your explicit written consent. It is critical, however, for faculty to understand exceptions to the above may be necessitated for students with disabilities who have approved accommodations; contact your campus Office of Disability Services for detailed information and advice.

As Morelli noted at the start of this important Professional Development Day presentation, the FA absolutely supports the academic freedom of our members. It is critical, however, for faculty to understand what academic freedom does and does not mean, both when you’re teaching on campus and when you’re teaching at a distance.

If concerns arise in your classroom or if you have questions about these issues, do not hesitate to contact the FA office by email or phone (631-451-4151).