New York University, the home of the Facebook Hook-Up page, is exploring new electronic communications rules for students and faculty.

We wish them tons of good luck. They’re going to need it!

As New York University nears the end of a years-long process to regulate electronic communication, the institution is caught in a balancing act between protecting its students and the academic freedom of its faculty.

The ongoing feud between public institutions in Kansas and the state’s Board of Regents has been the most visible example of how colleges and universities grapple with regulating social media use, and that board approved a draft policy opposed by many faculty members Wednesday. The process at NYU actually predates that conflict. But what began several years ago as privacy concerns about the “Share This” function of websites and email spam has morphed into a broader collection of other policies about electronic communication in general — too broad, according to some faculty members.

…The revised draft, which was finally reviewed by the council last month after the issue was pushed to the bottom of the agenda by more pressing matters, seeks to address those concerns. It adds a paragraph on academic freedom and clarifies some of its terms, but it is unlikely to convert any skeptics.

Rebecca Karl, an associate professor of East Asian history who represents the Faculty of Arts and Science on the council, called it a “draconian and top-down policy that safeguards that operations and reputation of NYU” at the cost of freedom of expression.

“It’s characteristic of NYU to be very restrictive about what its faculty can do, rather than approving of what its faculty already does,” Karl, who has been a critical voice against the university’s administration, said. “It seems to me in the realm of the probationary rather than encouraging people to explore social media use.”

Indeed, the policy has less to say about appropriate uses of social media than about misuses.

Among the 15 examples of inappropriate use are “conduct that unreasonably and substantially interferes with a person’s academic or work performance, opportunities or benefits, or a person’s mental, emotional, or physical well-being”; “conduct that disrupts NYU operations or creates a foreseeable risk of doing so”; “[publishing] unauthorized digital images or video files depicting another to embarrass, socially ridicule, or defame that person”; and “prohibited electioneering.” The list is not exhaustive.

…[Ted Magder, associate professor of media, culture and communication] and Carol S. Reiss, professor of biology, both mentioned the case of Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers University student who killed himself after he was secretly recorded kissing another man, as one of the driving forces behind the policy.