Apprehended Because of Facebook

Stephanie Bulger / Claremont Student

By Christina Wu
Staff Writer

Facebook: “an online directory that connects people through social networks at school.”  You probably know somebody with an account or, chances are, you have an account yourself. With a growing numbers of 12.4 million students registered since the site’s launching of February of 2004, the online college directory has become a national student obsession. According to the founders of the website, Chris Hughes, Mark Zuckerberg, and Dustin Moskovitz, three students of Harvard College, an estimated 15,000 accounts are created per day. Once only open to college students with a college e-mail address (.edu), Facebook has also recently opened its doors to include high school students.

But with Facebook mania storming campuses, do students realize that they are not the only ones who have access to their own individual accounts? No longer is Facebook simply a tool for students looking to find more information about the attractive somebody sitting three rows ahead of them in their economics class. Nor is it merely a place for students to voice political beliefs and list classes. College/university faculty, employers, and police departments now have access to everything students post, and they’re not being kind about it, either.

Facebook users are allowed to create a profile that lists everything from personal interests and favorite quotes, to cell phone numbers and relationship status. Users can also post a profile picture and even create multiple photo albums. In addition, users may create or join groups of any sort, advertise and RSVP for events and parties, and post comments on other users’ walls, as long as those other users are saved as friends. It has been estimated that Facebook users spend an average of 18 minutes on the website per day, and 67% of users visit the website daily.

But if students having been thinking that only themselves and their friends are viewing their Facebook profile, they’re been thinking wrong. According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, four students at Northern Kentucky University received a university code of conduct violation from campus security after posting a picture of themselves sneaking a keg into their dorm room. 

The same article notes that campus police at Pennsylvania State University charged four students for rushing the field at a Penn-State/Ohio State football game, after doing a little research on Facebook. Police discovered the students’ identities – and their crime – after finding a group created by one of the students called “I Rushed the Field after the OSU Game (And Lived!)” 

A sophomore at Fisher College, Cameron Walker, was expelled from his school in September of 2005 after joining a group called “Students against _____.” The goal of the group was to jokingly get a certain officer from Fisher College fired. Fisher administrators did not take the joke lightly. Walker has words of advice to all Facebook users. “Watch which groups you're members of, watch what you say in groups and watch what people post on your profile," he said. "There's no privacy - no one is safe.”

Fisher administrators have argued that Walker “violated the Student Code of Conduct,” said John Mc-Laughlin, spokesman for Fisher College. The expulsion letter written to Walker stated that he had committed a "serious violation" by violating the harassment policy and computer policy.

Melanie Brister, a junior at Pitzer College, believes that Facebook has caused many students to lose touch with reality, “I think it is weird how so many people would put up so much personal information on a website where anyone can view it. My friend jokingly asked her boyfriend to ‘marry’ her on the relationship status option on Facebook. In response, her boyfriend rejected her offer and changed their “in a relationship” status to single. That is how Facebook ended their relationship.”

Justin Conary, a freshman at Pitzer, believes that students need to be more cautious of what they sign up for, “I think a lot of people do not realize who will see what they put on their blogs, Facebooks, Myspace, etc. People just need to be careful with what they put on the Internet. Perhaps people should read the privacy agreement before registering for any web service.” 

Another freshman at Pitzer, Nicole Arnolie, believes that there are pros and cons to this situation, “I think there are positives and negatives to this. The positive side is that kids will face repercussions for their wrongdoings. But the negative side is that student personal profiles created purely for one’s personal enjoyment are being used against students now.”