Over the past five weeks the same Texas A&M University- Commerce student has been caught four times looking at pornographic material in computer labs on campus.
The last incident occurred on Oct. 14, according to a police report filed by University Police Department Officer Jason Irvin. The student, identified as Kendrick McMullen, was seen looking at pornography on a computer in Binnion Hall room 315 by an A&M-Commerce staff member. The staff member then called UPD, but by the time Officer Irwin had arrived at the scene McMullen had left.
Since the incident, McMullen has been issued a criminal trespassing letter and will be arrested on sight if he is seen in Binnion Hall room 315.
According to Lt. Jason Bone of UPD, charging McMullen with a crime would be very difficult due to the fact there is no legislation on campus prohibiting students from viewing pornography. He said the only thing McMullen could potentially be charged with was indecent behavior, but even that would be difficult to stick.
The lack of legislation in this area is due to certain psychology classes, which would require students to do research which could involve pornography.
Dean of Students Brian Nichols said there is a rule in the campus guidebook related to this topic, but it leaves issues such as these open for wide interpretation.
“It would have to interfere with the academic mission of the university or violate the rights of another student,” he said.
If a student does feel offended by something another student is looking at on a campus computer that student does have to the right to voice a complaint, according to Nichols.
“If there is interference with the learning process it needs to be reported,” he said.
Another problem with enacting legislation is the topic of “objectionable material” could potentially cover a wide variety of sub-topics.
“There are a lot of nuances in this area,” he said.
Nichols elaborated on a story involving one student being offended by an image on another’s computer.
“A student brought his laptop to class which had a screensaver of a woman in a bikini,” he said. “Another student in the class was offended, so that student approached the professor of that class and voiced her complaint. The professor then told the student with the laptop about the issue, and he offered to remove the screen saver.”
Nichols said for now there is no research on this topic.
“We first would have to define what pornography is,” he said.
There are also no statutes regarding downloading pornographic images to a personal storage device according to Nichols.
“Unless there is criminal activity there are no rules about this on campus,” he said.
Bone said he has thought of a different approach for handling this issue.
“I am tempted to just give him one of the old computers in my office and tell him to just keep it in his room,” he said.