A new school-wide social media policy is in the draft process that primarily addresses the usage and management of university-affiliated social media accounts, Vice President of Marketing and Communications Perrine Mann said.
“I think the goal [of the new social media policy] is to foster responsible use of social media that reflects Occidental’s mission and values, and supports accessibility and equity, maintains brand consistency, and also complies with college policies as well as state and federal regulations,” Mann said.
Faculty Council President and professor of History and Asian Studies Sasha Day said there is some confusion among students and faculty around the language in the policy and how it will affect them.
“[In the policy there are] somewhat ambiguous or vague phrases that create uncertainty as to what is allowed,” Day said.
The policy states that college-affiliated accounts and official trademarks cannot be used “to promote, endorse or renounce any companies, products, legislation, political parties, candidates for political office or political opinions or causes.” Day said faculty research can often be political.
“A faculty member does that kind of [political] research, and they publish it. That phrase says that affiliated accounts of a department can’t support political opinions or causes,” Day said. “Can they [a department account affiliated with Occidental] retweet this op-ed written by a faculty member?”
Day said social media is very important for faculty, as their research is more likely to reach wider audiences when it is shared online.
“I’ve heard faculty say that they are considering giving up the social media they do for departments in their research because of the new policy,” Day said.
Day said he is also concerned with the policy’s discussion of unaffiliated accounts, accounts that are related to the college but not run by it. The policy states that the college will not monitor unaffiliated accounts, but that unaffiliated accounts “may be held responsible for their social media activity if it causes substantial disruption to the College environment.”
“What is a substantial disruption? What constitutes it? Who gets to decide whether it’s a substantial disruption? What are the results if you cause some substantial disruption, whatever that means, because of something you put on your personal Twitter account?” Day said.
According to Ross Marchand at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), overly broad guidelines can be harmful whereas clear and specific policy language ensures consistency and neutral enforcement of the policy.
“When administrators are left with wide discretion to interpret vague standards, enforcement can become unpredictable and biased, even with the best intentions. Well-defined terms, objective criteria and concrete examples limit this discretion and promote equal treatment, ” Marchand said.
Mann said students and faculty were allowed to submit comments on the policy’s draft until Feb. 27 when the comment period closed.
ASOC President Trisha Bhima (junior) sent an email March 6 showing student feedback to the policy. According to ASOC’s poll, 69.9% of students said they were strongly concerned about the social media policy and most said they had concerns over free expression and monitoring.
The poll was sent to the Policy Committee, Bhima said, which is the college’s policy-making body.
Bhima said that last year, ASOC worked with the Policy Committee to allow for students, faculty and staff to be able to comment and give input on the policies created at Occidental.
“During that two week comment period, faculty and students would have the opportunity to provide feedback on the policy, and there would also be a designated open forum for people to come talk about their thoughts about the policy, provide feedback, get their questions answered,” Bhima said.
Bhima said that even if students missed the previous feedback deadline, they can reach out to the Policy Committee via email at any time to share their thoughts on proposed policies.
According to Bhima, the Policy Committee does not include student or faculty representation. Day said the Policy Committee does not have to accept any feedback.
“We’re hopeful that the policy committee will take that feedback seriously,” Day said.
Mann said feedback is critical to the policy-making process and that she hopes students and faculty understand why this sort of policy was created.
“I think the goal with both the comment period and the open forums is to really solicit genuine feedback,” Mann said.
Day said having social media policies is not a new thing, as many other universities have developed similar policies.
“Higher education has been under attack by the president’s administration,” Day said. “Social media can inflame those tensions on campus and can cause all sorts of problems for colleges.”
Contact Emma Williams at ewilliams4@oxy.edu
