by

J.E. White

As the new semester approaches, changes to accommodate shifting student requirements are changing how classes are presented and received. The traditional lecture format, at most colleges, is amended to include in-class real time sessions (with Covid related safety enhancements), virtual on-line real time broadcast sessions, and legacy sessions recorded and archived to be accessed by students at their convenience.  A host of issues is raised as technology progresses to enhance the student learning experience. Faculty, full time and part time, are facing legal considerations for Intellectual Property (IP) considerations, Name Image Likeness (NIL) compensation, and the implied ramifications of nonconsensual student engagement. Each of these issues needs to be examined, both ethically and legally, before the technological march obliterates personal rights and tramples privacy laws. With each new rung on the ladder of technological advancement, care need be taken.

One proposal for upcoming classes is to install cameras in classrooms. The cameras will broadcast in real time. The broadcast will include the course lecture, professor and student comments, class discussion, cotemporaneous and often-elevated arguments (philosophical and ideological), and all video and audio content. Further discussion may occur and even with a professor’s moderating intervention, exchanges may grow heated and even become personal. All of this activity is captured and archived; yet none of this content has been cleared via informed consent for broadcast, for archiving, and for further review. None of the deeply engaged students, possibly revealing personal information, arguing ideological positions (maybe even playing devil’s advocate), have been counseled and advised as to the legal ramifications of their behavior and comments. In a world in which social postings unearthed from years in the past may resurface to affect and possibly harm individuals, protections of IP and privacy rights have been breached. Things said in the spirit of the moment, quite possibly reconsidered and revised “after-the-fact” in personal reflection, are permanently preserved in perpetuity. Students are left legally unprotected, and the perpetrators of content preservation are held unaccountable for contravening both privacy and IP rights. Professors, acting in the best heuristic interests of student enquiry, can be accused, entirely out of context, for their pedagogical efforts to further student engagement and debate. No IP or NIL consent has been consigned, yet archived content remains the property of the institution for which the professor works and the students attend. IP and NIL rights are appropriated with each session broadcast and archived. Those sessions return no economic consideration to the creator regardless of how often they are viewed. The exploitation of IP and NIL is without parallel in the modern world. Unjust enrichment, at various academic institutions, is realized while faculty and students remain uncompensated.

CITRUS COLLEGE IS CLOSED UNTIL THE END OF THE SEMESTER. Faculty will continue to provide remote instruction.

Citrus College has a procedure in effect for the event of a closure due to a pandemic. These procedures are mandated by Los Angeles County Health, state mandates and federal agencies such as CDC. Click here for AP 3505.

Faculty should  have other means for delivery of instruction such as the use of Canvas. There are resources on the Citrus College website to help with the transition. If you need help consider contacting us as we can help with using ConferZoom or other pedogolical issues. (We are teaching, too.) Be flexible with students who are ill.

The best protection is to wash your hands and avoid touching your face.

Coronavirus. Covid-19. Pandemic. Fear of illness and even death has become a side effect of the latest viral outbreak. An important first step to take is to accept that the coronavirus is real and is serious, but that by following the precautionary measures, we can make it through these tough times.

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Skipping school has now become an academic norm; at least since 2018 when AB 705 was enacted. In a move to eliminate delays in a student’s educational progress, AB 705 actually allows students to overstep remedial coursework and go straight into transfer level courses. Without a fuller understanding of basic English and math skills, however, many students face more difficulties when trying to keep up with transfer level work; thus, delaying their educational progress (and possibly with a cut in federal aid).

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From left to right:
Laura Wills, Representation Officer
Bill Zeman, Treasurer
Linda Chan, President
Mark Wessel, Secretary
Anne Battle, Vice-President

From left to right:
Laura Wills, Bill Zeman, Linda Chan, Mark Wessel and Anne Battle

Campus Equity Week at Citrus College, Glendora, California

CAMPUS Equity Week

The last week of October

Click and Read about Who Is Professor Staff.pdf,   Helping Adjuncts with Student Debt.pdf and Faculty Matter.pdf

Check out a film by Brave New Films called ” Professors in Poverty”

Would you like to be hired as a Community College Instructor?

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If you have not been given an assignment

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