June 1999
Can state employees view sexually explicit material on the Internet? No, claims the State of Virginia when it passed a law in 1998 prohibiting state employees from doing so. Hmmm! Does this include university professors who are employed by state universities, especially professors who teach courses on sexuality and gender or conduct research in this area? If so, is this not a violation of academic freedom or freedom of speech per the First Amendment? Yes, claim six university professors at George Mason U. who joined with the American Civil Liberties Union to challenge the constitutionality of the law. The result—the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Virginia’s law. One’s first amendment rights are not violated by restrictions placed by the state on state employees, who on state time, download sexually explicit material from the Internet. —story reported in Government Technology News, April 1999.
Academic fraud is growing worldwide, according to research conducted by Professor Harold J. Noah of Teachers college at Columbia University and Max A. Eckstein of Queens College of the City University of New York. The cause—the pressures of the marketplace and new technology that makes it easier to cheat, plagiarize, and falsify credentials. —story reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education, April 30, 1999.