Professor Soucek, UC Academic Freedom Committee Play Key Roles in New Zoom Policy

Zoom announced a policy change last week that gives colleges and universities more control over the virtual events they host on the video conferencing platform.

Professor Brian Soucek chairs the University of California’s systemwide Committee on Academic Freedom, which had been working on this issue since late last year. UC faculty released a statement a few months ago calling on Zoom to make a change.

Amy K. Lee '06 of the UC Office of the President also participated in the talks.

Soucek met for months with Zoom to develop the new policy, which applies to all of Zoom’s higher-education users. He detailed the process last week on Twitter and also spoke to Higher Ed Dive and Inside Higher Ed.

Professor Soucek’s primary teaching and research interests are antidiscrimination law, civil procedure, constitutional law, and refugee/asylum law. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. He has clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Mark R. Kravitz in Connecticut, and Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.