ASU President Michael Crow has exempted several groups of ASU employees from a state law that prohibits the use of state-owned computers for downloading or accessing images of nudity or pornography.
Section 38-448 of the Arizona Revised Statutes states that an employee of a state university may not "knowingly use agency-owned or agency-leased computer equipment to access, download, print or store any information infrastructure files that depict nudity, sexual activity, sexual excitement or ultimate sexual acts."
In a letter to all University employees, Crow authorized the following categories of employees to access images of nudity for research and use related to their academic appointment or duties at ASU:
- All employees with academic appointments, student research and teaching assistants, and employees performing duties related to University academic functions, as authorized by a department chair, dean or director or provost
- All employees whose job duties include the provision of physical or mental health services
- All employees whose job duties include the analysis of legal issues or the investigation of allegations of misconduct
- All employees of campus museums, media services, libraries and ASU Public Events
"The categories of employees listed are those known to have employment-related reasons, such as scholarship, investigation and computer maintenance to access materials that are otherwise restricted by the statute," said Nancy Tribbensee, an ASU deputy general counsel.
An employee found to have unauthorized pornography on his or her computer could be disciplined or dismissed, as set forth in University policy, Tribbensee said.
In fall 2001, controversy erupted at ASU over a course titled "Sexuality in the Media," which required the viewing of X-rated movies. But most professors don't put pornography on their syllabi.
ASU Professor Mary-Lou Galician said she did not find it necessary to use images of nudity in her development of MCO 473, a class investigating "Sex, Love and Romance in the Mass Media."
She does, however, believe the images should be used for criticism by academics.
"If an image is produced in a classroom environment, it should be presented for evaluation and critique, not to revel in," Galician said.
Galician also said Crow's decision to authorize the use of these images by certain employees was based on trust of their academic standards.
"In an educational environment where the majority of people are likely accessing these images for research, the majority of people will be responsible," Galician said. "The law is likely to protect against the few who might use the images carelessly."
Associate professor Joseph Russomanno said that though he has never used images of nudity to lecture in his Mass Communications Law class, the state law might potentially raise constitutional issues.
"There is a recent history of Supreme Court rulings in this area that have overturned laws of this nature," Russomanno said. "One current exception is the case where filters on library computers were ruled constitutional."
In August, the Supreme Court upheld the Children's Internet Protection Act, which blocked federal funds from reaching libraries that refused to install filtering software on computers.
Though the Arizona law applies to all state equipment and resources, it does not specifically address the conduct of students who use their own equipment to download pornographic images while on campus.
"Employees and students are all subject to the ASU Computer, Internet and Electronic Communications Policy, however," Tribbensee said.
The policy does not expressly prohibit use of the ASU network by individuals using their personal computers to access pornographic images, with the exception of child pornography.
"I just assumed that you couldn't look at porn using a campus computer," said sociology and mass communication senior Matt Kallish. "Why look at porn at school when you can do it at home?"
Reach the reporter at kelly.vaughn@asu.edu.
