Pubdate: Mon, 07 May 2007
Source: Diamondback, The (U of MD Edu)
Copyright: 2007 Diamondback
Contact:  http://www.diamondbackonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/758
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

FEAR THE TURTLE

Our View: Invasive university security measures unfairly threaten 
students' freedom of expression.

Last week, two invasive and largely unchecked university policing 
tactics have bubbled to the surface.

First, we discovered University Police have not hesitated to monitor 
campus groups on Facebook that advocate controversial viewpoints, 
raising questions about how much officers value freedom of speech.

Next, a student told The Diamondback that an undercover police 
officer had monitored him in the classroom after the professor 
complained about the student's reaction to a difficult quiz. While we 
must support increased security in light of the Virginia Tech 
massacre, we must also recognize that knee-jerk reactions are not 
just ineffective - they're an invasive threat to inherent student liberties.

The potential for abuse is real. Any time a professor deems a 
student's action "threatening," he or she need only contact his or 
her department head, who then contacts the Office of Student Conduct, 
which then contacts the police.

In the entire process of determining whether to send undercover 
police to a classroom, the student is not contacted once. The sole 
interpreter of precipitating events is the finger-pointing professor, 
who could very easily skew facts to carry out a personal vendetta 
against any student who talks too much, shows up late to class or 
just rubs him or her the wrong way.

Effectiveness must also be questioned. Does monitoring a student 
without telling him change his behavior?

Certainly not. Does taking police action?

Punishments may stop an outburst, but they cannot cure its cause.

Rehabilitative methods such as counseling might not only be more 
fruitful, but they'd make the university a resource to be relied on, 
not feared.

While police intervention is helpful, giving university counselors a 
prominent role in the process could both establish a regular check-in 
point for troubled students and allow police to concentrate more on 
problems only they can tackle.

Clearly, something must be done. At a university where databases 
track each swipe of a student ID card and surveillance cameras deck 
academic buildings, walkways and even shuttle buses, the potential 
for a multifaceted Big Brother operation is alive and kicking hard. 
If students do not have effective checks on policing strategies, a 
society of learning will be replaced with a society of fear, where 
students with unpopular or bold ideas are scared away from the 
classes that should embrace them. If students cannot express 
themselves at a university, where can they?
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman