Recording Content in Instructional Spaces

At the January 27, 2025 Faculty Senate meeting, President Slouber provided background about recordings by students being uploaded to LLMs for summaries and stressed that this is a different issue than disability accommodation. The main question is deciding whether to move forward with the idea of restricting classroom recording without consent. Senators discussed FERPA and student consent, whether a policy would also apply to video/photography, enforcement mechanisms, and how recording might be taken out of context or used for targeting and harassment. The UFWW is looking into this with respect to intellectual property, with the Assistant Attorney General doing a case law review. However, the outcome of the legal questions about intellectual property would not impact a policy change. 

It was determined that Senate Executive Council would draft a proposed motion to address this issue for Senate consideration on February 10.

On February 10, the Senate Executive Council presented a motion to add the following language to POL-U2100.02 Ensuring Academic Honesty, Section 3:

d. Record content in classrooms or virtual instruction spaces without the express permission of the instructor and students enrolled in the course section, unless approved as a disability accommodation. Dissemination of unauthorized records would violate classmates' right to privacy (FERPA) and intellectual property laws. Upon adoption by the Faculty Senate, the language will be forwarded to the University Policy Rules and Review Group (UPRRG) for review and further action.

During discussion, three friendly amendments were adopted by consent, following which the proposed addition to POL-U2100.02 Ensuring Academic Honesty, Section 3 was unanimously approved:    

d. Record content in classrooms or virtual instruction spaces, and/or disseminate classroom content, without the express permission of the instructor and students enrolled in the course section, unless approved as a disability accommodation. Unauthorized dissemination of unauthorized records may violate classmates' right to privacy (FERPA) and intellectual property laws. 

Upon adoption by the Faculty Senate, the language will be forwarded to the University Policy Rules and Review Group (UPRRG) for review and further action.