<p>A friend of my d's who is on the Harvard soccer team told her that the coach has told the team to get rid of their facebook accounts. I can certainly understand this, but it does make me wonder -- shouldn't the coach be more concerned with dealing with the kinds of behavior that she doesn't want showing up on facebook rather than telling the girls to get rid of their accounts? It seems to me it is akin to eliminating the messenger so that hopefully the news will not get out.</p>
<p>Shelf-life, my D's head coach mandated removal of MOST Facebook content across the board at last week's first meeting of the year. The athletic department actually had a staff person go to each student's account, print out all objectionable or even slightly curious content, hand out same to each student at the meeting, gave them 24 hours to disappear it, and not repeat the same content. Most were very benign (picture of my daughter holding what is very obviously bottled water). The coach did NOT demand they close their accounts. </p>
<p>My daughter has no problem with it, and fully suppports it. But I have some concerns that it strays a bit too close to infringing on freedom of expression, etc., especially when these were not pictures of parties, alcohol, etc. I do understand and do not oppose the concept of policy re wearing the uniform, representing the college, etc., but, it's still troubling to me for reasons I cannot quite articulate. And I'm even more concerned that my daughter isn't questioning it - something tells me she should be questioning this closely, but I cannot quite figure out why I think this.</p>
<p>Personally, while I am not a Facebook or MySpace fan, I am opposed to this level of interference on about every level.</p>
<p>Wow, my daughter (card-carrying ACLU member) would flip out if her coach did this. Fortunately, she isn't at Harvard and I think it highly unlikely her school (Brown) would ever consider such a thing. I guess this just gives her another reason why she doesn't like Harvard (not sour grapes, didn't apply there).</p>
<p>latetoschool, do you mind saying which school you are talking about. If you don't want to disclose it, that's fine. I'm just curious how widespread this sort of thing is and which schools are involved. It seems rather appalling and kind of stupid to boot. Has the reputation of Harvard or some other school been besmirched by some athlete's Facebook entry? Must have missed that.</p>
<p>And why draw the line at athletes? Just tell everyone they can't have Facebook entries, MySpace entries, blogs, you name it. Start spying on students to make sure they don't do anything questionable that would hurt the college's reputation. Cripes, if this is what they want, why don't they vet students prior to admission? Kids with questionable Facebook entries in college probably had them in high school too.</p>
<p>OK, my morning rant is over :)</p>
<p>Well, its the coach's call. If he thinks he can field a decent team and prohibit public postings, it seems its up to him. At a summer sports camp I recently attended a very successful hs coach made the point to tell all your players and parents never to post on the onine sports message boards concering your sport or school. I thought that was good advice.</p>
<p>I understand the ACLU stuff but I also feel that being on a team is a privilege, not a right and that the behavior of student athletes reflects on the team and the school. For instance, my daughter dances and her studio has a rule that if say a dance student is out in public and wearing a logo'd item, a sweatshirt with the dance studio logo, it is expected that their behavior will be appropriate.<br>
And at one point a bunch of kids were posting on their myspace stuff about the dance studio, the teachers, the other students, and they were told to take it down or leave.<br>
So two issues, one reflecting back on the team or the school, two items that are nasty or unkind about others in that group.<br>
I guess as the previous poster said if the coach can field a decent team and prohibit public postings, it's up to him.....</p>
<p>Facebook is a way for kids to locate and communicate with their friends at their college and at other colleges. My kids use it to keep in contact with many people whom they would have no way of finding otherwise. I can see arguments on both sides as to whether the coach should monitor the content of the Facebook entries, but I totally disagree with forcing the team members to totally get rid of their accounts.</p>
<p>DianeR, when my daughter graduates, and is totally clear of this college, I will post about it; our experience has been wonderful and I have many, many good things to say about it. It is not an Ivy, but is D-1, nicely positioned in the rankings and climbing for whatever that's worth. She has been happier than I ever could have dreamed possible. </p>
<p>I'm troubled by casual internet snooping on persons, at all levels. Throwing a person's name into google is one thing; drilling into other areas gets into uncomfortable territory. I can also see the coach's point. And the university's point.</p>
<p>Depending on whether you are playing that sport with a full-ride or not, the coach basically 'owns' your behind and what they say, goes!
Unfortunate, but true.</p>
<p>As for Facebook, I think it is a great way to stay in touch, make new friends and to let people know who you are. My daughter has already made several new friends on her floor {along with her roommate} and is keeping in touch with them before they all move in.
With all the uneasiness about who and what they are getting themselves into, Facebook has made transition alittle easier and to me that is a major plus!</p>
<p>The coaches generally don't care what you do as long as it doesn't hurt your playing. They're really more concerned with you making the team look bad publicly, to the media types, not other students. Take for instance the Northwestern Soccer team. The coach has to know the stuff goes on, but it only matters if it gets made public. Also, college teams haze a lot more than fraternities (just thought I'd throw that in).</p>
<p>636</p>
<p>I posted this on another thread, but students at my son's public hs are being called in to the principal's office to discuss their "My Space" sites. They are looking for alchohol or gang related pictures and posts. This kind of rubs me the wrong way because these sites have nothing to do with hs, unless their is a picture of somebody with holding a beer at a school function. I guess they are trying to stave off any bad circumstances before they begin, but doesn't that seem like spying? I told my son that he is lucky because his girlfriend's father is a Baptist Minister who regularly checks my son's My Space, so he keeps it clean ;)</p>
<p>It's not at all spying, the information is vouluntarily placed in the public domain. It's not like the SRO went into the kid's car and found a camera with incriminating pictures on it. Plus, unless they changed the rules, if a high school student gets busted for underage possesion, the school will suspend them on top of whatever the state does, even though it would have happened away from school.</p>
<p>636</p>
<p>Well considering there are over 2100 kids at his school, it is going to take them a long time to go through them all. But, I will tell ya'll this and this may make you feel a little differently about the way they are going about it... The kids that have been called down so far are all black. It is said that they are trying to stamp out gang activity before it begins this school year. Wouldn't you think this is somewhat racist?</p>
<p>Fortunately, while in high school, my daughter lost interest in myspace after about two months. She does have facebook...I think the last time she updated it was more than a month ago and I think she has about 20 photos of herself there. But...she has friends who update every hour (literally) and who have posted over 500 photos of themselves. How can a person have a meaningful college experience if they can't break away from the computer for more than an hour?? (I say this as I promise to log off right after this post!...lol!) And I am a bit queasy about the narcissistic bent reflected in the need for the world to see 500 photos of oneself. I'm guess I'm grateful my d finds the whole thing boring. And we have stressed to her that she should always view her facebook as a sort of resume...something that faculty, administrators and potential employers will see. So how much fun can it be to constantly revise your resume...lol!</p>
<p>Re: ag54's post. Our school district acts on code of conduct violations found in photos on myspace or h.s. facebook. The downside of that is now kids scour the sites looking for incriminating evidence against their 'enemies' so they can turn it in to school officials. Last year, cheerleaders and drill team members were dismissed for being in the same photo with a can of beer, kids were put in detention for threats, etc... Seems like the whole teen blogging thing has just created a lot of unnecessary and negative activity on the part of kids, parents, administrators...and imho not worth the trouble.</p>
<p>For some reason, it is still really popular at my s's hs, but after finding out that the administration is cruising the sites, it may lose its allure. </p>
<p>So, a new form of tattling has been found - pretty indicative of our society. Unfortunately it will take a few kids to get burned by their pics for others to heed the warnings that we parents are making. As I said about my s's site, he had some posts from friends with cuss words and when his girlfriend's dad saw them he blew a gasket, so my s keeps "updating his resume" to keep it G rated.</p>
<p>Wisconsin is monitoring the sites for athletes posting problematic material.</p>
<p>I still can't see the justification for censorship, much less foreclosing a forum for expression altogether as Harvard apparently has. </p>
<p>Just because someone has the power doesn't mean it is right to exercise it. Yes, being on an athletic team is a privilege. But would it be OK for a coach to say he only wants kids of a particular religion, race, or political party on the team? I think most of us would find that disturbing. So why are limits on free expression less problematic? If there is some principle involved here -- speech can be prohibited if it is X, Y, and Z -- I think X, Y, and Z need to be clearly specified and justified. </p>
<p>If the problem is disclosure of illegal behavior or violations of NCAA or college rules, then it is the behavior itself that needs to be addressed. Does not talking about the behavior in one particular forum make it OK, much less justify impinging on what other students are allowed to say? </p>
<p>The issue is not protection of students. If so, colleges would advise students, ALL students, what is inadvisable. But these are adults we are talking about; the choices should be up to them unless they somehow impinge on the rights of others.</p>
<p>I don't see how even tasteless Facebook entries hurt the school. Heck, there are tasteless entries about everywhere I would think (except at conservative, sectarian institutions that are probably upfront when students apply as to the type of behavior and speech that are acceptable). Are Harvard applications down because of things some athletes have put on their entries? I doubt it. Have there been exposes on the news about such postings holding Harvard up to ridicule? I haven't seen them.</p>
<p>I don't even see how poor student behavior hurts the image of a school, unless the school is whitewashing or condoning that behavior in some way. Then again, it would be the behavior and how the college treats the behavior that is the issue, not what is on some internet pages that the general public cannot even access.</p>
<p>What hurts the image of the school is how IT acts. If it acts like Harvard and these other schools, I for one would think less of it. Either they are on an arbitrary power trip, or they have selected students of such a character that the latter's self-expression needs to be stifled lest anyone get of whiff of what those individuals are really like.</p>
<p>Finally, I don't see the justification for putting athletes in a special category of "representing" the school. If they misbehave, they affect what people think of the school no more than if some other students there misbehave.</p>
<p>My guess would be: it is the ripples from notorious Duke's lacrosse accident.</p>
<p>I don't think Harvard has any institution-wide policy on censoring facebook accounts of its varsity athletes. My daughter, who will be a freshman there this fall, is "friends" on facebook with quite a number of varsity athletes there. I suspect it was a particular coach who set a policy for his or her team forbidding the accounts. Or at least that's what appears to be the case at this time.</p>
<p>I look through my daughter's "Facebook" all the time...with her permission, of course! I see alot of pictures of kids drinking, acting silly and even found one with a guy smoking a pipe which I doubt was tobacco {:-0}</p>
<p>After she was assigned her roommate a week ago she became concerned that her "Facebook" might be abit...umm..."risque" and asked me if I thought she should delete a few pictures of herself at parties with friends and change some of her info.
I left that totally up to her but reminded her that this was "who she was" and that she needed to be "herself".
Needless to say, she left it alone for now.</p>