The Kansas University Senate is still trying to agree on a written procedure for what happens when a KU employee is accused of violating the Kansas Board of Regents social media policy.

Senators debated two proposals during their meeting Thursday, their second meeting to debate the procedure. The Senate tabled the discussion and expects to pick it up again in April.

Both proposed procedures call for an “Initial Review Panel” to determine if there are reasonable grounds to believe the employee violated the policy. If so, a “Substantive Review Board” would consider evidence and suggest discipline.

The proposals differ over who would serve on those boards and who would select and approve them.

Senate members have been working on the initial proposal all year, and it has been OK’d by the provost’s office. A new version proposed by Senate member Gerald Mikkelson, professor in the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies department, gives the provost less control in the selection process.

“We are to some extent muzzled,” Mikkelson wrote in a letter supporting his proposal, “we even behave partly because we fear retribution from above.”

Students also want language specifying that one of their own will serve on the panels if the accused employee is a student.

The Regents enacted the controversial social media policy in 2014. It says universities can fire faculty members who post messages on social media that are “contrary to the best interests of the employer.”

A good procedure is needed to protect academic freedom by giving accused employees due process, said University Senate President Jonathan Mayhew, professor in the department of Spanish and Portuguese. Ultimately, KU administration must enact any recommended procedure.

“The Kansas Board of Regents social media policy does not in itself offer very many protections,” Mayhew said. “So I think that at the Lawrence campus we need to have these protections in place.”

Clarification

The Kansas Board of Regents social media policy does not apply to student employees. The policy says that universities can discipline “any faculty or non-student staff member” found in violation of the social media policy.

Regarding KU’s procedures for applying the policy, Miranda Wagner, KU student body vice president, said students want additional protections to ensure the university could not inappropriately discipline students, particularly non-hourly student employees such as graduate teaching and research assistants.