While some universities are increasing scrutiny of employee social media use, Georgetown has not yet implemented any formal restrictions. Instead, it trusts in the judgment of staff and faculty.
“We’ve never policed or restricted social media activities before,” Communications Officer Rob Mathis said. “It’s not because we directly say we won’t police but because it has never been an issue.”
Nevertheless, in response to demands from faculty and staff for clear guidelines, the Office of Communications is currently preparing a handbook that will set rules for social media accounts that are affiliated with the university. It will most likely be available to faculty and staff later in the semester and is an extension of pre-existing student code of conduct, employee guidelines and privacy policies, simply in the context of social media.
According to Mathis, social media is simply a vehicle for problematic behavior; it is not the problem itself.
“It’s about giving tools, resources and tips for creating a strategy, and around that use of social media, understanding what the university’s point of view is on strategic use of social media for communications and marketing,” Mathis said.
Currently, the university’s social media policy is loose and created through collaborative, strategic programs and workshops such as the university’s social media working group, which is made up of staff members who manage social media on behalf of their programs or departments, to monitor its own social media.
“We connect with all these members to make sure they are as strategic and creative as possible when engaging in social media activities,” Mathis said.
The Office of Communications is also creating a student social media advisory committee, which will help the social media working group in collecting student opinions about what they look to see and hear from the university’s social media accounts.
Mathis attributed other universities’ problems with social media to a lack of communication and collaboration.
“They haven’t gone through the process of engaging social media on behalf of the university,” Mathis said. “If they were to have more in-person, collaborative programs that go over these guidelines, universities would not have these problems.”
For example, Director of Residential Education Edward Gilhool, who is in charge of managing social media content for resident assistants and hall residents, said his department does not strictly supervise the RAs that control hall Facebook pages. Rather, it is expected that they naturally understand the basics of using social media in a respectable way.
“Although we encourage students to be mindful about how they represent themselves as student leaders on social media, Residential Living does not monitor personal Facebook accounts,” Gilhool said. “As with all of our endeavors, we strive to ensure our mediums of information sharing promote safe, responsible and inclusive living-learning environments. As a result, our RAs understand the importance of using residential community Facebook pages to enhance community.”
