Social media policy plans shared

May 6, 2011

To the Campus Community:

I am writing to announce the vetting of a new policy regarding university communication on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or the many other variants developed in recent years. In the next few weeks, the policy will be reviewed and comments will be shared by the chancellor’s leadership team, the dean’s council, faculty assembly, staff council, the professional exempt staff association and student government.

While exciting, the use of social media has significant accuracy, legal and ethical responsibilities for UCCS.

I have asked Stephanie Blake, assistant professor, Communication, to lead a task force to develop a social media policy as well as guidelines for review and comment. Dr. Blake consulted widely with many on campus and also reviewed policies in place at other universities and in industry in developing a series of recommendations.

In its current form, the new policy requires official UCCS social media sites to be initiated and authorized by University Advancement. Sites also will follow our new brand identity guidelines and must have a designated content owner. The content owner’s responsibilities include monitoring the site for accuracy, ensuring site communications are acceptable in the workplace and campus community, ensuring that intellectual property and confidential information is not posted, monitoring for illegal, obscene or defamatory content and compliance with laws and university policy, and that sites have the consent of involved parties prior to the posting of photos, recordings or related materials.

Additionally, the policy states that social media may be used for teaching and educational purposes but its use cannot be required by faculty and staff. This requirement reflects best practices among our colleagues. Several lawsuits across the U.S. are pending where  social media sites use was required for academic purposes.

Of course, existing university policies such as sexual harassment, nondiscrimination, appropriate use of the university’s name and marks, and appropriate use of computing resources apply to this new technology.

In an attempt to be helpful to those who are new to social media, the policy is accompanied by guidelines for its use. These guidelines encourage users of social media to show respect for community members. Social media are characterized by two-way conversations that require transparency, authenticity and accuracy to be effective. The guidelines also include a reminder that there should be no expectation of privacy when using social media.

It is my hope that this policy and guidelines will be of assistance to those interested in embracing these powerful tools to reach out to students, alumni, and colleagues.

To view our policies, please visit: http://www.uccs.edu/vcaf/policies/uccs-policies.html

I wish to thank Dr. Blake and the many people who contributed to her report for their efforts. I believe we are establishing an appropriate foundation for communication using modern tools while respecting traditional values.

Respectfully,

Pam Shockley-Zalabak
Chancellor