The student news site of El Camino College

El Camino College The Union

The student news site of El Camino College

El Camino College The Union

The student news site of El Camino College

El Camino College The Union

Academic Senate discusses recording in classrooms

After a student at Orange Coast College was suspended for secretly recording in class, El Camino revised it’s policy on recording during class on Tuesday, May 16.

Caleb O’Neil a student at Orange Coast College, was suspended for secretly video-recording his professor, Olga Perez Stable Cox, calling President Trump’s election victory “an act of terrorism,” according to an article from the Los Angeles Times.

Chris Gold, the vice president of educational policies for the Academic Senate, said that they want to abide by the state law and review the standards of student conduct.

“In light of what happened there, I think a lot of campuses are going back and taking a look at what the law is about recording,” Gold said.

The Academic Senate had revised the Administrative Procedure 5500 under Disruptive Behavior to prohibit, “using any electronic listening and recording device in any classroom without prior consent of the instructor,” according to the Academic Senate Minutes.

Disabled students who require the accommodation of recording must inform their professors and provide official documentation from the Special Resource Center, according to the Academic Senate Minutes.

The idea of recording during class may be controversial because it may be necessary in certain classes.

“In a communications classroom recording may be more necessary,” Gold said. “In a history classroom where we are talking maybe about race and ethnicity and sensitive issues we may not want to.”

Pete Marcoux, the vice president of academic technology and parliamentarian for the Academic Senate of EC, said that syllabus statement isn’t strictly enforced.

“This isn’t required to be put in a syllabus,” Marcoux said. “This is just a recommendation by the Senate, I think we just need to make that clear.”

Claudia Striepe, is the senior senator for the Library Learning Resources division of the Academic Senate of El Camino and was concerned about the syllabus statement for recording in the classroom.

“So would this statement be somewhere else?” Streipe said. “If I chose not to put this in my syllabus, could I say ‘Well it was in the catalog so you should’ve been aware of it anyway?'”

In which Gold pointed out that she could point to AP 5500 from the standards student conduct, which goes into more detail.

“Once wi-fi becomes available we are going to see a lot more devices, meaning next semester… next fall,” Marcoux said.

More to Discover