@binky17 - a few parents in the new group are trying to invite everyone they can. Any Tufts parent is welcome of course. But some people can’t be messaged because they have controls on, and FB will only let you message so many people before thinking you are trying to sell something and shutting down you messaging capabilities. Everyone invited has joined, but it’s only a small portion of those in the censored group. Just not sure how else to get the word out. No one can post about the new group in the censored one - apparently someone tried.
@mjrube94 - the school newspaper doesn’t usually get read by the parents, but it’s an idea.
Can you respond to any post on the censored group mentioning the new group or will the censoring staff member just remove it?
I’m enjoying this thread. My rebellious side enjoys hearing about you “stick it to the man”. 
Haha, yes, I think we could - but we are trying not to mention it on the old group and trying to fill up the new group first because there is some concern that people may get booted out of the old group by this rogue Tufts admin. We have no issue with people being in both if they wish.
I second the suggestion to get the student newspaper involved. Knowing that age group, they would probably love to write an article exposing some of the administration’s “dirty laundry” and it could generate media attention so that the rogue admin might be shamed into doing the right thing and not stifling conversations among parents.
One other idea is to contact the office of institutional advancement - I am guessing that they have staff members running the parent fundraising program and they would probably not support what the administration is doing. I worked in IA at a top 20 university and I know for a fact that IA wants to keep the parents happy!
Keep us posted.
ps - link to names of parents on Parents Leadership Council:
http://giving.tufts.edu/parents/leadershipcouncil-members.html
The “message from the chairs” has an email address:
http://giving.tufts.edu/parents/leadershipcouncil-letter.html
There is a parent FB group run by one of my kid’s colleges. But… I will say, there are challenges. Parents sometimes come on to rant about a particular gripe that is clearly colored by one kid’s experience. Sometimes they pass on rumors they heard from their students that are not true. Once a student passed away, and a parent posted a link to an article very graphic and distrurbing description of the student’s accidental death – I’m sure it would have been distressing to the student’s parents and friends to read it. Sometimes parents will bring up issues from past years and get parents of new frosh concerned about things that aren’t even issues any more.
The college has sort of a parent liaison to the page who does have the power to take things down when they are very inappropriate (like the graphic article). (Not me). Kind of like a mod. :). Occasionally I have a back channel IM with another parent about the impact of their posts on new families-- sometimes the parents then modify or remove the posts.
This fall parents have been using it to post lots of pictures from move in and orientation photos their kids sent them.
I think having a “mod” type role at least is a good idea.
Are there other admins for the group, or only the school employee? I believe another admin could remove the school employee.
@intparent “I think having a “mod” type role at least is a good idea.”
I agree, but it is better if it’s not censored by the school.
The mod in our case is in close contact with the school. Sometimes they have her post info on things – I think it is stuff like reminders on dorm closings, or replicas of info sent to students (who don’t always pass on the info to parents). I expect if they asked her to take something incorrect or inappropriate down, she would. I don’t see a problem with it, honestly. In this case the school created the group and makes sure all parents get invited to join. I think they then have the right to moderate as they think is appropriate.
@Much2learn there is a parent admin who actually started the group but she is afraid to rock the boat with the University. She apparently is not pleased but at the same time will not remove the controls. I found out today from a friend who tried to join the wrong group, that new members to the old group now have to give their child’s name and year before being admitted. Not sure how I feel about that one.
The new group is building up members but it will probably take awhile. Even if the Tufts guy comes around around and removes the controls on the old group, it will still be better to have a private group which doesn’t have the University watching all posts. No one wants their kid to be affected by anything they post.
@intparent I don’t think anyone would argue that perhaps sometimes posts need to be moderated. But prescreening seems unnecessarily heavyhanded and necessitates a wait before something you post gets put on the board, which is not ideal if you want to reach out to parents more urgently.
" I found out today from a friend who tried to join the wrong group, that new members to the old group now have to give their child’s name and year before being admitted. Not sure how I feel about that one."
I hate censoring but I’d be okay with this as there are all kinds of people trying to join groups for the wrong reasons including spamming or just causing nonsense. I’m an admin on a few facebook groups and see it quite often.