• Site Map
• Search
• Contact Us
• Français
• Privacy Statement

 

CAUT Policies

Policy Statement on Academic Freedom and Electronic Communications

This Policy Statement on Academic Freedom and Electronic Communications clarifies and reaffirms the rights articulated in the Policy Statement on Academic Freedom approved by CAUT Council. It neither diminishes nor dilutes these rights — rights which remain essential if post-secondary institutions are to continue serving the common good of society.

1
The rights of academic staff to exercise their academic freedom do not vary according to the medium in which they are exercised.  These rights are as essential to academic activities undertaken electronically as to those undertaken in speech, writing, and/or other media.  The following list of examples is intended to be illustrative rather than exhaustive.

1.1
In making instructional materials available electronically, academic staff must have the same rights of academic freedom as when they circulate such material in printed, audio and/or visual form.

1.2
In posting information about their research, teaching, and intellectual interests on the web sites of institutions where they are employed, academic staff must have the same rights of academic freedom as when they present such material in speech, print and/or other media for the benefit of students, colleagues, publishers, community groups, and so on.

1.3
In publishing their work in electronic form, academic staff must have the same rights of academic freedom as when they publish their work in other forms.

1.4
In expressing in electronic fora their views on topics of public interest, whether those topics fall within their area of professional expertise or not, academic staff must have the same rights of academic freedom as when they engage in any other form of public discourse.

2
Electronic mail sent or received by academic staff must have the same protections as communications by conventional mail (through national and institutional postal services and private carriers and couriers). Administration and academic staff must treat electronic mail as private and inviolable.