![]() ![]() Most Mount Holyoke professors' syllabi this semester included a section regarding this issue, explaining particular class policies and their preferences regarding recording. Today, willful attempts to record a conversation without full disclosure can result in serious repercussions, including fines up to $10,000 and possible incarceration. Such crimes were staged behind walls of secrecy. Initially, the 1968 law aimed to inhibit the growth of organized crime rates, which were "infiltrating legitimate business activities and depriving the honest businessman of the right to make a living," according to section 99. Massachusetts law states that "unrestricted use of modern electronic recording devices poses grave dangers to the privacy of all citizens of the commonwealth." Furthermore, the recording was against the law, since he had no idea he was being recorded. On behalf of the professor, some felt the video was in poor taste and that the clip didn't encompass the professor's entire monologue. The College Fix and Mount Holyoke Radix wrote articles about the event, and social media exploded with student opinions as to what should be done. The video spread rapidly around the school and South Hadley area, raising questions about the ethics of faculty sharing political views in class, the violation of the wiretapping law and First Amendment rights. Last semester, a controversial event at Mount Holyoke brought about this discussion, when a student anonymously recorded her math professor expressing his political views about the 2016 presidential election. "I grew up here and know many people who record that probably don't know there's a law about it either." "I had no idea that there were laws forbidding that, and I especially didn't know they existed in Massachusetts," Fox said. Sabrina Fox '18 said that she'd never heard of the law, and suggested that all professors should inform their students about it at the start of classes. Each participant in a conversation must be directly notified, unless it is blatantly obvious that a recording device is present. While both a majority of states and the federal wiretap statute require only one-party consent to record a conversation, the Massachusetts wiretapping law, or the two-party consent law demands the consent of all parties involved. ![]() The occasional student might covertly record a class lecture, but they may not realize that activity is illegal in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which has one of the most restrictive recording laws in the United States. ![]()
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