A semester of letters and workgroup meetings has resulted in serious recommended changes to the Kansas Board of Regents’ social media policy. The regents represent the governing board of public Kansas universities.

“I’m very proud of the work we’ve accomplished,” Victoria Mosack said in an earlier interview. “There’s been a lot of work and discussion.” Mosack is the faculty senate president at Wichita State and helped represent WSU in the workgroup. The other WSU representative is Richard Muma, associate vice president for Academic Affairs.

The changes include sections about the importance of First Amendment rights and academic freedoms when determining “improper use” of social media. It more narrowly defines social media to not include emails, Listservs or collaboration websites.

Under the recommended policy, social media used for academic purposes within university and Board policy is exempt from the social media policy.

A workgroup representing the universities proposed a list of recommendations to the policy earlier this month. The recommendations went to the board on April 16.

The Board Governance Committee accepted many of the recommended changes, which they’ll present to the regents in May. The Board of Regents is accepting comments on the proposed policy until 5 p.m. Friday, May 2.