C.L. Lindsay: Campus Computing and the Law

On Wednesday, November 12, attorney C.L. Linsday of CO-STAR (Coalition of Student and Academic Rights) spoke to the UIS community about campus computing and the law. Lindsay’s message is not new; in this day and age, who hasn’t heard about internet safety, plagiarism, and illegal downloading? Lindsay even admitted in his interview that “all of this should be common sense.” Yet his unique, lighthearted approach to the topic made it seem to come to life again.

Lindsay illustrated his lecture with scandalous photos depicting action figures getting into exactly the kind of trouble he finds on most college campuses. “Shaggy” and the gang from Scooby Doo showed the dangers of posting what Lindsay later called “dumb pictures” of illegal activities on social networking profiles like Facebook and MySpace. The “creepiest Ken doll ever” portrayed a would-be thief downloading illegal music and videos. And “Frodo” and a few other hobbits were the underage drinkers, because “well, they’re short!”

The sobering reality of C.L. Lindsay’s presentation was the breakdown of actual UIS policy on actions such as underage drinking, drug use, plagiarism and illegal downloading. Though our campus computing policy is “one of the more lenient” that Lindsay has seen, it still leaves very little expectation of privacy. And according to Lindsay, academia is virtually exempt from the 4th amendment “exclusionary rule” of evidence, which covers only government institutions in criminal cases. This means that UIS officials such as Housing and possibly even the campus police could very well use what they find online to incriminate students for anything from a simple policy violation all the way up to a full out expulsion, even if the evidence is not obtained “fairly.”

“Students have a whole different code of ethics when they go online,” Lindsay explained, “but what you do online can affect you later on in the real world.” Recent surveys indicate that a growing number of employers look up candidates on the internet before making a decision about hiring. So before you post your latest party snapshots online, think about how these photos could have a real impact on your career, and ultimately, on your life.

This presentation was sponsored by the Career Development Center, partnering with the UIS Student Government Association, Student Activities Committee, the Office of UIS Alumni Relations, and the ECCE Speaker’s Series program.