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UC Regents Policy 4408 on Public and Discretionary Statements by Academic Units

This message lays out a process for academic campus units to come into compliance with the new Regents policy.

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Dear Colleagues,

I write today as a follow-up to my message of August 26 about Regents Policy 4408: Policy on Public and Discretionary Statements by Academic Units, approved by the UC Board of Regents on July 18, 2024.

Today’s message lays out a process for academic campus units to come into compliance with the new Regents policy. First, I want to underscore my commitment, with Chancellor Larive, to academic freedom and free speech, a commitment we shared in an October 30, 2023 message to our campus:

“Academic freedom is a foundational value of the university, one to be defended. Freedom of expression is also part of our bedrock, backed by constitutional rights. With academic freedom and free speech, universities are ideally situated to foster deeper understanding of complex issues and to support constructive debate.” Further, we noted, “the high regard we have for the right to free speech of our community members, and the foundational commitment to sustain an educational environment in which people disagree while maintaining an ethic of care.”

Regents Policy 4408 opens with, “Upholding the values of freedom of speech and inquiry are core values of the University of California. Under the First Amendment and principles of academic freedom, faculty members, individually and collectively, have the right to express their views. While individual members of the University community are free to express constitutionally protected viewpoints through all non-official channels of communication, long-standing principles of academic freedom have recognized that when faculty members speak or write as individuals, they should make every effort to indicate that they are not speaking for the institution. This Policy sets forth the responsibilities of and procedures for Academic Campus Units when issuing public statements.”

You are receiving this message because you lead an academic campus unit. In the policy document, the phrase academic campus units is defined as, “officially recognized University academic departments or divisions as well as other official academic University entities, including schools, centers, laboratories, institutes, campus divisions of the Academic Senate, and campus University Extension units.”

Academic campus unit websites are required to comply with this policy, effective immediately.

The Regents policy distinguishes between Public Statements, which include department messages “regarding its curricular offerings, its traditional mission statements, or strategic plans; administrative activities, operations or resources; news announcing University or campus activities, programs or initiatives; or news and events related to faculty research, teaching, and individual or collective scholarly endeavors;”

Discretionary Statements, which are “communications … that are not part of the day-to-day, term-to-term operations of the unit, and that comment on institutional, local, regional, global or national events, activities or issues.”

Please note that the policy requires:

  • All statements to be consistent with applicable law and University policy;
  • Discretionary Statements to be accompanied by a disclaimer expressly stating that the statement should not be taken as a position of the University, or the campus, as a whole;
  • Academic Campus Units that intend to produce and disseminate Discretionary Statements develop and publish procedures that comply with the rules outlined below;
  • Discretionary Statements should not appear on the main homepage of a website of an academic Unit, and instead should be posted on a separate page identified for such statements.

Process for Discretionary Statements

In regard to Discretionary Statements, the Regents Policy states, “The rules outlined below for Discretionary Statements aim to ensure that the viewpoints of Academic Campus Units are not understood to reflect the views of the University. The rules also aim to ensure that members of the community associated with the Academic Campus Unit enjoy the freedom to speak or not to speak, to deliberate or not deliberate about issues, where such speech is not a required element of their job description, and that their decision whether and how to speak through Discretionary Statements compliant with this policy is insulated from repercussions on and off campus. These procedures also aim to protect members of an Academic Campus Unit frombeing misrepresented or misunderstood to endorse a position that they have not chosen to endorse and to insulate them from pressure to endorse a position when they hold a minority viewpoint.”

Please note in particular the requirement that “Academic Campus Units that seek to make and disseminate Discretionary Statements must create, publicize, and follow procedures that articulate the process by which such statements will be produced, posted, and archived. Academic Campus Units have substantial discretion about the details of these procedures.” The guidance in the policy for developing these procedures is similar to recommendations made in 2022 by the UC Academic Council , based on recommendations from the University Committee on Academic Freedom (UCAF). In drafting academic unit procedures, you may find it helpful to refer to the 2022 recommendations.

I ask you to review the complete policy in detail. Action may be required by you.

1) Please review the website for the academic campus unit you are responsible for to ascertain whether there are currently any discretionary statements that need attention in order to comply with Regents Policy 4408. If so, please take immediate steps to comply.

2) Please convene a meeting for your academic campus unit to decide whether your academic campus unit wants to allow discretionary statements on its webpage. If so, establish and publish the standards governing the issuance of Discretionary Statements, consistent with the Regents Policy. It is recommended that these procedures include details about how long a Discretionary Statement is posted before it is removed. Please note also the Policy requires that Discretionary Statements be posted on a separate webpage and not the homepage of the academic campus unit.

The academic campus unit’s Discretionary Statement procedures must be filed with their deans. The dean will keep record of the procedures. Departments are required to submit their procedures well in advance of posting any Discretionary Statement.

Please note that there is no requirement that departments develop a procedure if they do not intend to post Discretionary Statements. Departments may decide to refrain from posting any Discretionary Statements.

Since the beginning of the academic year will coincide with the final weeks of national and state elections, please keep in mind the UC policies and guidelines related to political advocacy:

UCOP Advocacy Resources

Please ensure that your academic unit promptly comes into compliance with Regents Policy 4408. Discretionary Statements posted before July 18, 2024 that are not compliant should be removed within 10 days of this message (by Sept. 6, 2024), until they can be made compliant and can then be re-posted.

I appreciate consultation with Senate Leadership in producing this memo, and I will continue to work closely with the Academic Senate to support our core values of freedom of speech and inquiry, our principles of academic freedom, and our First Amendment rights.

Thank you.

Lori

Lori Kletzer
Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor

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Last modified: Dec 08, 2025