A new Facebook group, entitled “Your University is watching you – Beware” warns members of the possibility that administrators may be viewing student’s Facebook profiles.
“Your university may be snooping around on Facebook to get you in to trouble and press charges against you — so beware,” writes Ryan Duckwitz, a student at George Mason University and creator of the group.
According to Lizzy Adams, a junior in communication and a resident advisor in Tucker Residence Hall, this is not the case as far as RAs are concerned.
“They tell us if we see suggestive photos we are supposed to report it,” she said. “We don’t go around specifically looking for them.”
Charges were brought against 15 Alexander Hall residents in October of last year based on photos posted on Facebook.com.
An RA in Alexander reported the students after viewing pictures of them consuming alcohol in the residence hall.
“She did what we would expect any staff member to do — bring this to the attention of her supervisor,” director of the Office of Student Conduct, Paul Cousins, said.
Adams pointed out that new policies give anyone with an email address the opportunity to obtain a Facebook account. She said this allows businesses, parents and administrators to access student’s profiles.
“Be wary of what exactly you put up there,” she said.
Liz Bond, a freshman in textiles, said she recently encountered a potential employer using Facebook as a tool for evaluation.
“I applied for a summer job. The next day, I had a friend request from someone I didn’t know,” she said. “When I looked at their profile, I saw that they were affiliated with the organization I had applied to work for. I had already signed a release for them to do a background check, but I assume they were also checking my Facebook.”
Justin Nuzum, a freshman in business management, said he is cautious when “tagging” pictures of himself and others on the Internet.
“If it’s really incriminating, I’ll say ‘maybe we should take that down’ — just in case your RA sees it,” he said. “I don’t want them to see the pictures and be suspicious.”
Nuzum said he does not approve of administrators using Facebook.com for disciplinary reasons.
“It’s supposed to be private,” he said. “It’s supposed to be a network of friends. They are violating it and taking advantage of it.”
According to Cousins, privacy on Facebook is non-existent.
“The basic misperception at [the time of the incident in Alexander] was that somehow Facebook was in fact, private, and of course that’s not true,” he said.
Cousins said the desire for privacy caused much of the student’s dissent.
“There was a sense of intrusion, like somehow the University had overstepped its boundaries into people’s personal lives,” he said.
Contrary to the statements on the aforementioned Facebook group, students report their peers Facebook activity in most cases, Cousins said.
“Nobody that I know in [the UNC system] has the resources financially or the time to sit around and cruise through the Facebook,” he said.
Cousins said the belief that students must adhere to rules and policies only under the surveillance of the University is a “disincentive.”
“Facebook is potentially a really interesting tool to stay connected with people around the globe,” he said. “We have to figure out some way to talk about the incentive for people to define themselves in a way that would make them proud, as opposed to thinking only in the moment — putting pictures up of their most embarrassing moments.”
Like Adams, Cousins noted potential employers and other organizations using Facebook as a means for background checks.
He pointed out the permanence of pictures posted online.
“These images are good forever because they just reside on somebody’s hard drive,” Cousins said. “Don’t do some of this stuff because it is going to embarrass you later in life.”