David McRaney  |  Journalist

Faculty Senate opposes proposed FCC actions

The USM Faculty Senate will submit a statement opposing easy access to USM computer networks by the federal government.

The Federal Communications Commission announced Sept. 23 colleges and private Internet providers would no longer be exempt from the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. To become compliant, some universities may be forced to raise tuition as much as $700 in order to upgrade their networks, according to Educause.

The vote to submit a statement disagreeing with wiretapping of campus emails and voice-over-internet-protocol came Friday at the regular Faculty Senate meeting.

After an article in The Student Printz brought attention to the issue Thursday, many faculty members have voiced their opposition to CALEA. Yet, there was some contention at the Faculty Senate meeting whether or not any action should be taken.

Stanley Hauer, professor of English, suggested a written statement of opposition to CALEA would likely be fruitless.

"Who cares what our opinion is?" he said in reference to the federal government's history of response to concern from the public.

He noted university emails were proven to be open to spying in the past by USM administration members, and no action was taken despite challenges from the Faculty Senate.

"This is like the legislature arguing about what the state poem should be," he added.

Not all members shared Hauer's viewpoint.

Faculty Senate president-elect Myron Henry, professor of mathematics, said the senate may not be able to stop the act, but they could at least make wiretapping inconvenient.

Several members pointed out they felt the issue was about more than privacy.

"Students are going to look at this issue, and if they see we can't support them and academic freedom, then we are sadly remiss," said Amy Young, associate professor of anthropology.

Sophomore polymer science major Steven Levin took the meeting as an opportunity to tell the senate directly that he opposed compliance with CALEA.

Levin said he planned to major in both polymer science and political science and may use the campus Internet service to "research Marxism one day and nitroglycerin the next."

He added he feared being put on some sort of watch list for doing the kind of research necessary for his degrees. He urged the senate to make their opinion known and not wait until it was too late.

Homer Coffman, USM chief information officer, was guest speaker at the meeting and pointed out CALEA may not be the most serious issue concerning privacy and the Internet on campus.

He said the Mississippi Public Records Act and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act deserve as much attention and alarm among professors.

"If a student emails you saying she must miss class because she had a miscarriage, that information becomes protected under HIPAA," said Coffman. Under the MPRA, public records must be available for inspection by any person unless otherwise protected, and providing access to public records is the duty of each public body. Coffman suggested USM faculty learn as much as possible about how these laws affect them.

Coffman added he has no plans to move ahead with compliance to CALEA until the FCC clarified what is expected from USM.

Originally published in The Student Printz on February 21, 2006