Soon, 24-hour monitors may be reading through your private emails and spying on your online activity under a newly expanded federal law that requires universities to help the government place wiretaps on their networks.
The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act was drafted in 1994 but only now is being expanded to include universities, which strongly are opposing it because officials say the new system simply costs too much. Technology experts say this could cost universities across the country $7 billion, and may do little to stop lawbreakers.
Universities are not fighting the surveillance by arguing civil liberties issues because the government would have to win a court order before undertaking surveillance, but the mere cost of this new system alone makes it unworthy of being implemented. The American Council on Education estimates that average tuition costs could go up by $450 annually, and this figure does not even include the costs of installing the system or the costs of hiring and training staff to oversee it 24/7, as the law requires.
And rising education costs – well above the rate of inflation – are already increasing the burden on students interested in a college education, in a country where education costs are already higher than anywhere else, and the federal government at the same time is cutting financial aid.
The American Council on Education is rightfully appealing the decision in the United States Court of Appeals for the rapid timetable and unnecessary costs that this new law is imposing on universities.
There is unlikely an extraordinary amount of evidence, either, suggesting that college campuses are hubs for terrorists and other criminals. If the government is enforcing this law to strengthen counter-terrorism measures in the post 9/11 era, plenty of other means exist for doing so, such as preventing a terrorist from entering into the country in the first place.
Though according to the law a judge is required to issue a court ruling before any student’s network is targeted by law enforcement, universities should not ignore the civil liberties issues this law has raised. It remains unclear whether a student can be spied upon without being notified, and how easily law enforcement can obtain a court order. Would a court order allow the government to spy on close friends to the person being investigated? Would classmates and professors also be subject to the government’s spying operations?
Unless the federal government narrows down the law to define exactly how the intelligence-gathering would be carried out under the new system, and explain the positive benefits students and law enforcement would receive from it, the $7 billion upgrade may just be overkill.
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