New recording policy in Pitt classrooms

Permission slips are required for many educational activities: field trips, skipping gym,… Permission slips are required for many educational activities: field trips, skipping gym, going to the nurse, arriving late and now, recording a class at Pitt.

The University’s Faculty Assembly, which represents all faculty at Pitt’s main campus and regional campuses, passed a resolution May 4 that put a statement on all faculty syllabuses saying that students need permission from their instructor before recording in the classroom.

The assembly, which is affiliated with the University Senate, changed the policy after an incident involving a student posting video of a class on YouTube, along with commentary on the instructor, classes and the University, said University Senate President Michael R. Pinsky.

The measure, which Dr. Pinsky described as a “restatement of the existing policy of the University,” requires students to get written permission from a professor before recording in classes.

Pinsky said that recording without permission from this point on would be considered creating a “hostile learning environment” in the classroom.

The University’s faculty handbook mentions “creating a hostile work or learning environment” as part of its anti-harassment policy.

The assembly, Pinsky said, acted to protect the “sanctity of the classroom” in making students get written permission from faculty to record in classes.

To allow students to record “just because they want to is quite dangerous” to the classroom, Pinsky said.

“Learning can be too easily bruised or damaged,” he said.

Pinsky said that some faculty were concerned that recording in classrooms would affect the class discussion, as students might censor themselves if they knew they were being recorded.

Leslie Cody, a second-year audiology graduate student, said that when she knew classes were being recorded, she felt reluctant to interrupt the lecture with a question.

Seminar classes were an even stronger deterrent for Cody.

“If there’s more debate about controversial issues people might censor themselves,” Cody said.

Kate Onorato is a student at the University of Pennsylvania but is taking several summer courses at Pitt.

Onorato said that biology classes at the University of Pennsylvania have recordings posted online.

“If I don’t go to class, it helps,” she said. “We’ll listen to it and take notes off of the recording.”

The University of Pennsylvania has a series of recordings on its website, including some from visiting lecturers on its campus.

Some Pitt professors thought that using recording devices hindered the classroom, Pinsky said. They expressed concerns that students might rely on the recordings and not participate in class or ask questions about topics that they do not understand.

Jaclyn Eatherton, a junior studying civil engineering, thought that the measure might have been an overreaction on the University’s part to a single incident.

“People mock professors all the time,” she said. “There’s ratemyprofessor.com that a lot of professors aren’t happy about. This time it just happened to be on video.”

Although the Assembly passed the measure, it will be up to individual professors to enforce the policy, Pinsky said.

Pinsky teaches Critical Care Medicine in Pitt’s School of Medicine and said that he does not generally have a problem with recording.

Pinsky said that sometimes in the past he has invited patients to come to lectures and share their experiences of dealing with disease, but has explicitly forbidden recording in those classes.

In all health sciences classes, Pinsky said that there are privacy issues relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.