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University Drops Prohibition on Web Links
Administrators at the University of California, San Diego, dropped plans to discipline a student organization over a link on its Web site after the AAUP and a number of free speech organizations wrote a letter of protest. An administrator had directed a student group to remove from its Web site a link to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (commonly referred to as FARC), which the U.S. Department of State has designated as a terrorist organization. The administrator wrote in a letter to the group that the link constituted "providing material support or resources" to a terrorist organization, which is prohibited by federal law, and threatened to discipline the group if it did not remove the link. He also instructed leaders of the student organization that they should regularly review the State Department's list of designated terrorist organizations to ensure that none of them appeared on the group's Web site.
The student group did not remove the link, and the AAUP and other members of the Free Expression Network argued that the administration's interpretation of "material support" was inappropriately broad and would prevent any professor, student, or campus news organization from using links for scholarly and reportorial purposes. The administration subsequently rescinded its request.
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