Social Media Guidelines

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Purpose:

To provide guidelines for the appropriate use of social media by Union students, faculty, staff, and affiliated individuals posting to College-affiliated accounts in a way that protects the reputation and privacy of the College and its community members.

General Guidelines for those sharing information via College or College-affiliated accounts:

1. Individuals must adhere to all federal, state, and local laws and regulations, as well as Union College's policies and guidelines.
2. Individuals must respect the privacy and confidentiality of others.
3. Individuals must avoid making statements or sharing information that could harm the reputation of Union College, its students, faculty, staff, or affiliated individuals.
4. When sharing content about the College on a personal account, students, faculty and staff must make it clear that their views and opinions are their own, and not representative of Union College unless authorized to speak for the College.

Social Media Best Practices:

Individuals should:

1. Be truthful and accurate when posting information on social media.
2. Be respectful when communicating with others online.
3. Disclose any conflicts of interest or potential biases.
4. Use caution when posting photos or videos, especially if they include others.
5. Be aware that their online activities can have real-world consequences, and they should act accordingly.

Union-Specific Guidelines:

1. Union College official social media accounts must be managed by authorized individuals who have been designated to do so. The College’s Office of Communications and Marketing needs to be informed of their administrator status on a college-representative account.
2. The Office of Communications and Marketing should be informed before a new College-affiliated account is opened. (This is not a requirement for student organization accounts, although advance notice is appreciated.)
3. Students, faculty, staff, and affiliated individuals may create personal social media accounts, but they should follow the general guidelines and best practices outlined in this policy when posting material related to the College.
4. Union College reserves the right to monitor and remove any content that violates this policy or any other college policies or guidelines.
5. Individuals should not post confidential or proprietary information about Union College or its community members on social media. This includes, but is not limited to, student records, financial information, and personal information.

Commenting on College Accounts:

We welcome and encourage respectful discussion on our social media accounts. Our goal is to foster an environment where everyone feels comfortable engaging in conversation and sharing their opinions.

To ensure that our social media accounts are a safe and respectful space for all users, we have established the following comment policy:

1. Be respectful: We expect all users to be respectful of others when posting comments. Personal attacks, hate speech, threats, posts that spread misinformation, or those that include discriminatory or derogatory language will not be tolerated.
2. Stay on topic: Please keep your comments relevant to the post and the discussion at hand. Off-topic or spam comments may be removed.
3. No commercial or promotional content: Our social media accounts are not a platform for commercial or promotional messages. We reserve the right to remove any comments that promote products or services.
4. No personal information: To protect the privacy of our users, please do not share your personal information such as phone numbers, email addresses, or physical addresses in the comments. Sharing such personal information of others is prohibited.
5. No illegal content: Comments that promote or encourage illegal activity will be removed.
6. No impersonation: Please do not impersonate another person or organization in the comments.
7. Moderation: We reserve the right to remove comments that violate this policy. Repeat offenders may be blocked from our social media accounts.

By commenting on Union College’s social media accounts, you agree to abide by this policy. The College reserves the right to update this policy and to remove posts that do not adhere to this policy.