Requires certain colleges and universities vet all information displayed on their websites and marketing materials to ensure the information is accurate and impartial.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A7962
SPONSOR: Brown K TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the education law, in relation to requiring certain
colleges and universities vet all information displayed on their
websites and marketing materials to ensure the information is accurate
and impartial
PURPOSE:
Requires certain colleges and universities vet all information displayed
on their websites and marketing materials to ensure the information is
accurate and impartial.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Section I: Section 355 of the education law is amended by adding a new
subdivision 22 requiring that the State university trustees shall adopt
a policy requiring that each institution of the State University of New
York vet all information displayed on their websites and marketing mate-
rials to ensure the information is accurate and impartial. Section 2:
Section 6206 of the education law is amended by adding a new subdivision
22 requiring that the board of trustees shall adopt a policy requiring
that each institution of the city university of New York vet all infor-
mation displayed on their websites and marketing materials to ensure the
information is accurate and impartial. Section 3: Identifies effective
date.
JUSTIFICATION:
On April 6th, 2022, Anthony Bottom, who now goes by Jalil Muntagim,
spoke at a virtual event as an invited guest of a SUNY Brockport faculty
member. Mr. Bottom was convicted in 1971 in the killing of two New York
City Police officers in an ambush. He spent nearly five decades in pris-
on before being released on parole in 2020. Prior to the event and
deSpite the exhaustive effort of the widow of slain NYPD Police Officer
Joseph Piagentini the SUNY Brockport website failed to reflect or even
reference the events that led to Mr. Bottom's conviction. While the
website has since been updated this did not take place until after the
event had already taken place. While we all respect and appreciate the
necessity for free speech and while many may not have agreed with giving
an admitted cop killer like Mr. Bottom a platform, under a false narra-
tive, the issue is the use of propaganda for a SUNY sanctioned event on
the school's official website and providing inaccurate information to
SUNY students, faculty and the community-at-large in any of the market-
ing materials. Now more than ever it is important that a fair, balanced
and, most importantly, an honest approach to any information that is
public, especially when the intent of the informat ion is educating our
youth. This bill will require SUNY to change its policy to have all
marketing materials be reviewed and approved by the administration for
accuracy and without bias assuring that this type of situation does not
reoccur in the future.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2021-22: A.10245
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding the date
on which it shall have become a law.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
7962
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
August 18, 2023
___________
Introduced by M. of A. K. BROWN -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Higher Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to requiring certain
colleges and universities vet all information displayed on their
websites and marketing materials to ensure the information is accurate
and impartial
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 355 of the education law is amended by adding a new
2 subdivision 22 to read as follows:
3 22. The state university trustees shall adopt a policy requiring that
4 each institution of the state university of New York vet all information
5 displayed on their websites and marketing materials to ensure the infor-
6 mation is accurate and impartial.
7 § 2. Section 6206 of the education law is amended by adding a new
8 subdivision 22 to read as follows:
9 22. The board of trustees shall adopt a policy requiring that each
10 institution of the city university of New York vet all information
11 displayed on their websites and marketing materials to ensure the infor-
12 mation is accurate and impartial.
13 § 3. This act shall take effect on the first of July next succeeding
14 the date on which it shall have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD06294-01-3
