Freedom of Expression
The University of North Texas has the following official policy regarding censorship:
Censorship is not compatible with the goals of the University of North Texas. The University will not limit access to any information due to its content as long as it meets the standard of legality. The University does reserve the right, however, to place reasonable time, place and manner restrictions on freedom of expression on its computer systems.
In cooperation with the official University policy, the UNT Student Computer Labs have adopted these procedures regarding access to offensive materials in the computer labs:
- The Student Computer Labs cannot police the activities of our patrons and will not assume that responsibility. If a patron in the Student Computer Labs is offended by material being viewed by someone in the lab, that patron should notify the lab employee on duty. The lab employee will take the following steps to resolve the problem:
- The lab employee will move the offended patron to another computer station which is not in a direct line of sight of the offensive material, assuming space is available.
- If this is not a satisfactory solution to the offended patron, the lab employee will ask the patron viewing the potentially offensive material to move to a computer station where other patrons will not be exposed to the contents of his or her monitor screen. Once again, this is conditional upon available space in the lab.
- If neither of these actions are acceptable to the patrons, or if there is no space available in the lab to relocate one of the patrons, the lab employee may ask one or the other patron to come back at a later time.
- If none of these attempts by the lab employee are acceptable to the patrons, the lab employee will ask both patrons to check out of the lab; the Student Computer Labs will not take sides in this matter.