The Kansas Board of Regents enacted a new policy outlining rules for social media that professors must abide by following a controversial tweet sent out by a journalism professor earlier this year, the Republic reported.
The policy was passed on Wednesday and is the first of it's kind, resulting from the uproar that journalism professor David Guth caused after he uploaded a tweet criticizing the National Rifle Association (NRA) in the wake of the Navy Yard shooting in September.
"When the incident with David Guth occurred at the University of Kansas, it made the nine-member board realize no policy existed regarding the use of social media," Board of Regents spokeswoman Breeze Richardson said.
Before proposing a new rule, the regents said they discussed the matter with Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt to make sure it followed the constitutional rights of the faculty.
The new rule will allow universities to suspend or fire members of the staff for posting comments on sites like Facebook and Twitter that incite violence or disrupt the learning environment.
"The goal was to craft a constitutionally sound policy, utilizing Supreme Court language, that does not violate the free speech or due process rights of university employees while also establishing guidelines for employees and employers," Richardson added.
The social media policy does not apply to Guth as his incident was handled by the university immediately after the incident occurred. He was placed on administrative leave in September, just one month before it was announced he would not be returning to his position.
Faculty members reportedly asked the regents to allow them more time to review the new rules, expressing their worries about how it would effect the entire campus environment in addition to how others would view the policy.
