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?