First Amendment and Online Issues in Higher Education DVD

Webinar, October 10, 2008

Student use of online technologies and forums can present challenges for student affairs administrators at every level. The expanding terrain of cyberspace brings forth questions about student conduct, attitudes, and freedoms in online forums such as social networks. The webinar presenters explore how the law applies to administrators monitoring and responding to online student misconduct. 

Learning Outcomes

• To better understand the impact of technology and popular culture on current student self-expression;
• To better understand the types of problems created through the technology;
• To gain an understanding of forms of electronic expression that do not generally enjoy First Amendment protection;
• To develop an understanding of First Amendment forum analysis and how electronic communication fits in to such analysis;
• To explore campus best practices in addressing  uncivil discourse from an educational perspective

Program Agenda

• Student Expression in Cyberspace:  The Issues
• Student Expression in Cyberspace: The Causes
• First Amendment Implications
• Best Practices
• Approaches to Addressing Problematic Cyber-Expression
• Q&A

Tom Workman, PhD, is an assistant professor of communication studies at the University of Houston-Downtown and co-director of the UHD Center for Public Deliberation. Tom has more than 20 years of experience in the communications field as a researcher, instructor, and practitioner, and served as the communications coordinator for the NU Directions Coalition at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from 1999–2007. Tom remains active as a researcher and consultant in college AODV issues, providing workshops and presentations on community organizing and environmental management across the country. He is the chair of the NASPA Alcohol and Other Drug Knowledge Community, and has published a variety of chapters, articles, and monographs on college alcohol issues. He currently serves on the editorial board of two academic journals, Health Communication and Communication Quarterly.  

Mary Beth Mackin, MSEd, is the assistant dean of student life at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater where she is responsible for the areas of student conduct administration, ombuds, crisis management, alcohol education, and sexual assault prevention.

Mary Beth has been actively involved in the Association for Student Judicial Affairs for many years, serving as president, immediate past president, president-elect, treasurer and conference chair.  In addition, she has served as a faculty member at the Donald D. Gehring Academy for Student Conduct Administration, and she has presented at numerous state, regional, and national conferences during her tenure in higher education. She co-authored the book The First Amendment on Campus: A Handbook for College and University Administrators.

Moderator

Sheila Trice Bell is executive vice president and co-owner of Bell & Trice Enterprises, Inc., which is a multifaceted provider of business and policy consulting and training services. BTE assists higher education institutions, nonprofit institutions, governmental agencies, and businesses identify and implement innovative solutions to complex and difficult challenges and problems. Bell is also an attorney with more than 20 years of experience in higher education law and is counsel to Gurne Porter, PLLP, a law firm in Washington, D.C. that represents educational institutions, associations, and for-profit corporations. She teaches higher education law as an adjunct professor at The George Washington University Law School.