Q: What is the new Regents policy regarding public and discretionary statements?

A: The Regents of the University of California recently approved Regents Policy 4408: Policy on Public and Discretionary Statements, which states, “Discretionary Statements should not appear on the main homepage of a website of an academic Unit.”

However, unit statements, resolutions, and public stances may be placed on a separate page designated for them with appropriate disclaimers and produced consistent with procedures for developing such statements.  

Q: How does this policy align with freedom of speech and other rights and values at the University of California?

A: Upholding the values of freedom of speech and inquiry are core values of the University of California. Under the First Amendment and principles of academic freedom, faculty members, individually and collectively, have the right to express their views subject to time, place and manner policies of the university. While individual members of the university community are free to express constitutionally protected viewpoints through all non-official communication channels, long-standing principles of academic freedom have recognized that when faculty members speak or write as individuals, they should make every effort to indicate that they are not speaking for the institution. This Policy sets forth the responsibilities of and procedures for Academic Campus Units when issuing public statements.

Q: Who is covered by the policy at UC Riverside? 

A: Any academic campus unit affiliated with UC Riverside shall comply with Regents Policy 4408. 

Q: Who is not covered by the policy at UCR?

A: Policy 4408 applies only to academic campus units and does not address statements made by individual university community members or groups of university community members. The university affirms the rights of individual university members and of groups of university members to author and publish statements and circulate them in their private networks or on an individual university community member’s page on a unit’s website, subject to applicable law and policies, including time, place, and manner policies. 

Q: What is an Academic Campus Unit?

A: Academic campus units refer to officially recognized university academic departments or divisions as well as other official academic university entities, including schools, centers, laboratories, institutes, campus divisions of the Academic Senate, and campus University Extension units.

Q: What defines a public statement?

A: Public statements refer to communications by an academic campus unit or its lead administrator purporting to be made on behalf of the academic campus unit and distributed, disseminated, posted online or otherwise shared via mass distribution with University constituencies or the public. This term includes an academic campus unit’s messages sent to university constituencies or the public regarding its curricular offerings, its traditional mission statements, or strategic plans; administrative activities, operations or resources; news announcing university or campus activities, programs or initiatives; or news and events related to faculty research, teaching, and individual or collective scholarly endeavors. This term also encompasses discretionary statements.

REQUIREMENTS FOR PUBLIC STATEMENTS

All public statements made by academic campus units (including discretionary statements) must comply with applicable laws and university policies, including but not limited to university and campus policies governing:

• Conflicts of interest.
• Anti-violence, anti-discrimination, and anti-harassment.
• Use of university technology.
• Privacy and personal information, including the university’s policies regarding FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act).
• Intellectual property, including policies on copyright and use of the University’s names and assets.
• University codes of conduct, including the Faculty Code of Conduct.

Public statements may not promote, endorse, or oppose political campaigns or candidates for elected or appointed government office, or comment in support of, or in opposition to, specific ballot measures.

Q: What defines a “discretionary statement?” 

A: Discretionary statements refer to communications by an academic campus unit purporting to be made on behalf of the academic campus unit and distributed, disseminated, posted online, or otherwise shared via mass distribution with university constituencies or the public, that are not part of the day-to-day, term-to-term operations of the unit, and that comment on institutional, local, regional, global or national events, activities or issues. 

Discretionary statements do not include an academic campus unit’s messages sent to University constituencies or the public regarding its curricular offerings, traditional mission statements or strategic plans; administrative activities, operations or resources; news announcing university or campus activities, programs or initiatives; or news and events related to faculty research, teaching, and individual or collective scholarly endeavors.

REQUIREMENTS FOR DISCRETIONARY STATEMENTS

In addition to the above requirements for public statements, academic campus units that seek to make and disseminate discretionary statements must create, publicize, and follow procedures that articulate the process by which such statements will be produced, posted, and archived. 

Q: What is the Academic Senate's position on this subject? 

The guidance in the Academic Senate recommendations for department political statements released in June 2022 outlines the recommendations below. The procedures must incorporate these recommendations (including parallel procedures for statements made by subgroups of the Unit on behalf of the subgroup if permitted by the Unit):

• Discretionary statements must be accompanied by a clear disclaimer that the unit is not speaking for the university, all members of a unit (unless unanimous), or the campus, as a whole.
• Units should develop standards governing the practice of issuing discretionary statements, and then memorialize these standards in written bylaws or policies that govern departmental practice and are publicly available. These bylaws or policies should be flexible enough to take into account the varied contexts within which the desire to issue a statement might arise.
• As part of this process, units should decide who is included in the unit when the unit makes a statement. Units ought to include in their deliberations all those for whom they claim to speak when issuing discretionary statements. Units must collect the vote anonymously to minimize pressure on members of the unit who hold minority views.
• Any unit discretionary statement should be accompanied by some explanation of whose views it represents. Such an explanation can take a number of forms. 

For example, units could:

• accompany all statements with a disclaimer that the statements do not necessarily reflect the views of every member of the unit;
• accompany all statements with a report that the statements reflect “unanimity,” “a supermajority,” (at least two-thirds), or a “simple majority” of the unit members (at least 51 percent);
• issue all statements in the name of the dean or chair of the unit;
• list the results of a unit vote on whether to issue the statement.

In addition, discretionary statements must not appear on the main homepage of a website of an academic unit, and instead should be posted on a separate page identified for such statements. Links to discretionary statements may be placed on an academic campus unit’s homepage.

Q: Can a unit still maintain public and discretionary statements on their websites?

A: Yes, with the important distinction that discretionary statements shall not appear on the main homepage of an academic unit's website but should be posted on a separate page titled “Public Statements.”

Q: How does an academic campus unit determine the content of a published statement?

A: Academic units need clear internal procedures for determining the content of discretionary statements and the opportunity for dissent. Published statements shall include disclaimers to identify whose opinion is represented. Such statements must also include the templated phrase: “The unit is not speaking for the university, all members of a unit, or the campus, as a whole.”

Q: How does this affect my unit?

A: If your department, center, lab, or research website has a public or discretionary statement on its homepage, it should be moved to a separate web page designated for such statements titled “Public Statements.”

Q: What defines a “homepage”?

A: A homepage is the page typically first encountered on a website, at a URL that ends in “ucr.edu.” It usually contains links to the other site pages and serves as a table of contents for the site.

Q: What is the deadline for compliance?

A: In accordance with Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox's update on July 31, 2024, all academic units were asked to begin reviewing Regents Policy 4408 and update all college websites in accordance with the new UC Regents policy.

Q: What are other ways we can exercise our freedom of speech?

A: The University of California remains’s committed to free speech and academic freedom. One way we uphold our freedoms is by clearly communicating the rights and responsibilities of free expression within the campus context. And nothing in this policy is intended to infringe what an individual does in the personal, private capacity with no nexus to the university.