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Revisions to Code of Conduct

University of California Office of the President announced the following revisions to the University of California Policies Applying to Campus Activities, Organizations and Students, which affect the Berkeley Campus Code of Student Conduct. These revisions impact the Grounds for Discipline in the Code and are effective as of May 12, 2012.

• Section 102.09 of the Policy on Student Conduct and Discipline, 102.00 Grounds for Discipline removes the "interim" status from 102.09 and serves as the permanent policy.
• Section 102.25 of the Policy on Student Conduct and Discipline, 102.00 Grounds for Discipline is a new policy addressing prohibited conduct in settings where a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy.

Please note that, as a result of these changes, existing policies 102.25 Camping or Lodging and 102.26 Other Policies or Regulations are now numbered 102.26 and 102.27, respectively. The new policy reads as follows:

102.25

Making a video recording, audio recording, taking photographs, or streaming audio/video of any person in a location where the person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, without that person’s knowledge and express consent.

Looking through a hole or opening, into, or otherwise viewing, by means of any instrumentality, the interior of a private location without the subject’s knowledge and express consent.

Photographs and recordings made in private locations of sexual activity or that contain nudity, may not be posted online or otherwise shared or distributed in any manner without the knowledge and express consent of all recorded parties, even if the photograph or recording was originally made with the knowledge and express consent of those parties.

Making a video recording, audio recording, or streaming audio/video of private, non-public conversations and/or meetings, without the knowledge and express consent of all recorded parties.

These provisions do not extend to public events or discussions, nor to lawful official law or policy enforcement activities.  These provisions may not be utilized to impinge upon the lawful exercise of constitutionally protected rights of freedom of speech or assembly.

Definitions

“Express consent” is clear, unmistakable and voluntary consent that may be in written, oral or nonverbal form.

“Private locations” are settings where the person reasonably expected privacy.  For example, in most cases the following are considered private locations: residential living quarters, bathrooms, locker rooms, and personal offices.

 “Nudity” means the absence of an opaque covering which covers the genitals, pubic hair, buttocks, perineum, anus or anal region of any person or any portion of the breast at or below the areola thereof of any female person.

“Private, non-public conversations and/or meetings” include any communication carried on in circumstances that reasonably indicate that any party wants the communication to be confined to the parties, but excludes a communication made in a public gathering, or in any other circumstance in which the parties to the communication may reasonably expect that the communication may be overheard or recorded.

The policies can be accessed online at http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/coordrev/ucpolicies/aos/uc100.html.

You can find a copy of President Yudof's letter to the Chancellors here.