Students may now want to think twice before posting provocative
pictures on Facebook of Undie Run debauchery or of those
unpredictable Thursday nights, as their audience may extend well
beyond their fellow classmates.
With a recent string of schools including UC Santa Barbara
regulating inappropriate Facebook conduct, the popular
social-networking Web site can potentially work against
students.
Some students at George Washington University in Washington D.C.
recently experienced the downside of campus officials having access
to Facebook.
One student claimed the campus police used the online site as a
means to put a halt to his party, the New York Times reported in a
Jan. 8 article.
While campus officials at numerous universities may be taking
aggressive disciplinary action toward students displaying
questionable behavior in their photos and profiles, university
officials at UCLA said they have yet to turn to such drastic
measures.
“We do not currently have a policy in place where we
monitor Facebook,” said Brian Carlisle, associate dean of
students.
Though UCLA administrators do not monitor the plethora of
information that is widely available online, if information that
clearly violates university policy is presented to campus
officials, Facebook can be a vital source of evidence, Carlisle
said.
“Anytime anyone brings us information that violates
policy, we will investigate,” he said. “We are not
interested in searching out information on students. … We are
interested in students making good decisions.”
The university police department takes a similar attitude
regarding the growing site.
“We don’t use it preemptively. Sometimes people will
send us stuff from the Facebook,” said Nancy Greenstein,
director of police community services. “When (students) give
us reports, then yes, we investigate.”
Though the thought of administrators, staff and faculty with
UCLA e-mail addresses easily stumbling upon embarrassing photos or
unprofessional postings may be unsettling, no law prevents it.
“Undergraduate students don’t have immunity to the
law,” said Eugene Volokh, a UCLA law professor.
“It’s a publicly accessible Web site, so you
can’t complain about privacy violations.”
Volokh also emphasized that specific policies addressing
Facebook are not necessary for information on the Web site to be
used against a student.
“The underlying rule is you can’t drink in your dorm
room,” he said, referring to students who could potentially
receive disciplinary action for posting pictures of under-age
drinking on campus.
But using Facebook to provide evidence of unlawful behavior
among students could potentially become a common tool for
administrators.
“I’m not going to rule anything out,” Carlisle
said.
Nonetheless, students should be extra cautious when revealing
intimate details of their lives to online audiences, as future
employers and graduate school admissions officials have also been
known to use Facebook as a source in their hiring and admissions
processes, Carlisle said.