Is This Legal?
 

Could you all just make your profiles private?

No, something about if we don't add her as a friend, she'll get on someone else's page and look us up. I don't really know what she's planning on doing to us if we don't change it, but it just irratates me that she is telling us to change the things we want to say and the groups we want to belong to. Like I said before, I don't have anything on my page that would get me in "trouble," but I just don't like being told what I can and can't say, ya know?

:rolleyes:

I think all of our sororities attempt to do this with their members on their own. I don't see that it's that big of a deal...when you join a sorority, you give up some of your privacy and independence. I think that it should follow that when you become Greek you give up some privacy for independence. It will help the Greek community in the long run. It isn't being "fake", it's being smart. Having underage drinkers, for instance, on facebook is a liability both to the individual group and to that particular Greek community.

I mean, during rush you don't sit at the table and talk about how many shots you did last night, right? How is this different?

Aww My darling sister, I feel for you because I know you think these people are out of their flutterbudgetting minds, however, I have learned that when you join a sorority, a lot of time is spent telling you what to do and how to act and what to and not to say.
It is the "job" of my chapter's Membership Director to look for bad things and they will send us to discipline for anything and everything. So be thankful that it's just your PR of Panhel because I highly doubt that she'll have the time to search every member of all your campuses' sororities' public pages everyday all year long. (I'm on Panhel and the most we're planning on keeping track of is the Rho Gammas for affiliation). She really does sound very anal and she will give up after 5 hours of endless myspace pages anyways. Panhel after all, is a free job. :)

Give me three!
-Sis

The title of this thread bugs me because "legal" has nothing to do with anything at all.

Did the PR chair set this rule down on her own or was it agreed on by all NPC sororities?

You have three choices:

a) Keep your Facebook profile as is, but remove any kind of affiliation from the profile.

b) Comply with what your PHC says

or

c) Don't give a shit, keep your profile as is, because really...who the hell is she to tell you what to do, right? :rolleyes:

I'm so glad we didn't have FaceBook or MySpace when I was in college. I'd be all about c.

Unfortunately, she's skipping classes to check pages. :rolleyes: I guess we'll just have to tough it out. Thanks, sis!

What on Earth? I think someone's on a Panhellenic power trip.

Now was this really necessary?

Nobody likes a tattle-tale, and trying to make her look bad isn't helping your situation any. :)

Um, in this case, she will flunk her classes and be replaced next semester! God, revenge is a b*tch! :eek:

...

Won't skipping classes just end up hurting her? If her professors are anything like mine it will just backfire on her.

I can understand the whole underage drinking issue, but when she says that we can't belong to a group that has "the 'd' word" or "the 's' word" that bothers me. I may be alone, but I just wanted to see if anyone else had this problem. Thanks for all of the feedback!

Its not "legal." She and PHC only have the powers you give them.

The question is what can she do about it?

If it was voted on by all your reps and they have agreed to sanctions to either the organization or the individual, then you are in a bad spot and you may find your own chapter disciplining you.

If she is just doing it by herself, what power does she have? Is she going to beat you up?

You should contact your PHC rep and talk to your chapter president.

Also find out whether its the college administration using the PHC to further its own politically correct agenda. College's are famous for it.

Personally, I would have told her to go off herself. Politely.

I don't know about legal, but seriously, she's got your best interests at heart ;) It was my (paid, 9-to-5, serious) job for a while to essentially stalk people on the Internet (I was in the recruiting dept. of a large consulting firm). I used Facebook a lot. If people have stuff like that on their profiles, it looks bad - no one wants to hire someone (for a job, internship, whatever) who posts inappropriate photos of themselves or otherwise makes themselves look trashy, etc. online. It shows a lack of responsibility, foresight, and general good sense. People like that wound up printed off and passed around the office to be laughed at, NOT passed up the hiring chain.

Bitch dick crap

Sorry I had to.

Anyway I wouldn't add her on Facebook/Myspace... she can't do anything to you if you don't, except maybe yell at you, in which case shes certifiably psycho.

At UGA, every single active NPC sorority woman must make her profile "invisible" over the summer; that is, she must remove every reference to her organization including group memberships and pictures with her letters in them. If Panhellenic catches a chapter with a member who hasn't complied, the GLO gets a fine. I think it's $75 per infraction. Ridiculous? You betcha.

And I thought our problem here was bad...

I can see why drinking under 21 might be an issue if the pic was taken in the US (or any other country where the legal drinking age is 21...I don't know of any...most are 18 (except for most parts of Canada, where the age is 19), I believe). There are plenty of girls who might have gone to Europe for summer vacation and have toured vineyards. These girls might want to talk about it or put up pictures of their fun vacation on Facebook or MySpace, and shouldn't be required to take these down as they were legal in the jurisdictions these pictures were taken in.

And I'm sure that comprises 98% of underage drinking pics on Facebook, right?:rolleyes:

what she is doing is "legal" only if it is specified in the panhellenic bylaws, or the schools conduct code(or something similar). i urge you to check the bylaws to see if "facebook check" is written in.

what are the consequences if she finds violations? and is she the only person deciding who is in violation ?

My sorority has that same rule. Everything you do is a reflection of your organization, so it makes sense that they'd want to ensure you represent them well. Plus, it's just good form to keep your profile clean and classy.

I think you should follow your own GLOs rules regarding Facebook. You should also find out if your groups have given your local panhellenic group the "right" to do this.

I think it's dumb and wrong to have underage drinking or drug pictures or references, which some people do, especially if you also have your GLO's letters on your page.

However, the restrictions about groups may be taking it too far. And if she's skipping class to do this, she may not have good judgment. Make your profile completely private and wait, or follow the directions that you've been given by your GLO. (Did you hear from your officers at chapter about following her rules? What is your campus like? Are you a private or religious school?)

I'm wondering that as well. Does you sorority have to pay a fine if one of their members has alcohol in their pictures? Or will you have to pay? If you refuse to pay, is your membership jeopardy? I'm curious to see what authority she has over making sure the "punishments" are carried through. I'd be more inclined to tell her to 'shove it'. Can you make your profile private so that she can't check it?

daydreamer,

this is NOT her sorority doing the check-this is a panhellenic officer checking ALL sorority members facebook pages. i think it is tacky for people to post party harty/inappropriate photos on line, but unless it is a rule written in the panhellenic bylaws, this woman has no right to be policing individual facebook accounts.

many sororities have rules that they ask their members to comply with concerning facebook,etc. most panhellenics leave the policing of members facebook sites to their respective sororities-the exception being the no-contacting the pnms rule.

no matter how good ones intentions are, she cannot operate outside the written guidelines of the organzation. if this duty has been written into the panhellenic bylaws, then it is a moot point, and all sorority members should cooperate with the panhellenic officer.

The first thing she'll do is talk to the president of the chapter who is in violation to ask us to remove it. Other than that, I don't know what she'll do. Probably turn us over to the PHC vice president, who is in charge of issuing fines and punishments here. That is what leads me to believe that she is on a personal mission to change people's Facebook pages. I just think it's going too far that we have to leave some of the groups we belonged to because they had "bad words" in them.

And as far as making our pages private, just about every greek here has their pages set to private. We "have" to add her as a friend or else she'll track someone down on exec who is our friend and view our page like that. I guess I'll give her enough time to check my page and then delete her? I don't know.

has this duty been added to her "job description" in the panhellenic bylaws?

What directions have you gotten from your own GLO about this? What have they told you to do? Are they supportive of her efforts?

YES YES YES. I admire her intentions - to ensure that the image that Greeks put forth is a positive one. But unless your constitution and bylaws give her authority over you, she has none. And she cannot enforce any sort of punishment or fine over you or your chapter unless it is written down and voted upon and passed by the members of Panhellenic.

In fact, this it has disaster written all over it with sorority women putting up inflammatory stuff just to see what she would do about it. I agree with others, don't be her friend, set it to private, and wait. In the meantime, make sure you have told your sorority's Chapter Advisor and/or Panhellenic Advisor (I don't mean campus Greek advisor, I mean the alumna of your sorority that works with Panhellenic officers). Then go to the Panhellenic Inter/National officer in your sorority. Surely you have someone on a level between chapters and actual NPC Delegates. Not necessarily to fight it, but to at least make her aware of the situation should something come up in the future - like this person filing an NPC infraction on your chapter and trying to levy consequences without being permitted to do so by constitution and bylaws.

I hate when people get on power trips. Especially when they try and impose their personal issues on my business. Ugh. I feel for you!

As far as I know, this is NOT in the PHC By-laws or my chapter's by-laws/National Laws (that I know of). I was junior delegate last year and NEVER heard this issue brought up for discussion at PHC. I also think she has good intentions, but she's taking it too far. Next thing you know she'll be telling us who can be our friends.

I have complied with her requests and removed myself from the groups with the "bad words" in them, although I'm not happy about it. I never had any provocative pictures or pictures with alcohol in them so that isn't a problem. I don't think it will go to the extreme that she'll try to sanction us, but all of the suggestions and help you all have offered has been a big help. Thanks!

regarding the housing office using facebook....they are looking for violations of the STUDENT CODE OF CONDUCT or housing lease. Drinking in your room if you are under 21 is a violation of those rules. Thus, they can use it against you as it gives them proof (especially if it's a picture) that you were violating those rules.

the PHC officers cannot randomly decide to do this, especially if some sort of fine or other punishment is involved. That would need to be voted upon by the chapters and added to the by-laws. She can decide to start looking and having conversations with people about why they shouldn't have those things on their profile. Think of this as being proactive and providing educational opportunities through discussion.

If she is "forcing" people to change their profile when the chapters have not agreed to that rule, freedom of speech and association issues can be brought up. While chapters themselves are private organizations, I do not belive college Panhellenic organizations fall under the same category. It is a governing body and chapters are private under title 9 as single sex, social organizations. If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me.

I hope this explains the difference between housing looking for actual violations of policy and PHC officer looking for something SHE thinks is wrong.

happy spring break everyone!

Before getting worked up about it, I'd ask your Panhellenic rep if this was passed as a bylaw...this is something she should know, and she should be able to get a copy of the bylaw for your chapter.

If not then I don't see how this can be enforced...BUT I believe in picking battles. Is it really that big of a deal? It sounds like you didn't have much to worry about in your profile in the first place, but I'm sure some Greeks on campus do, and honestly, whatever her motives, she's doing them a favor. People just don't understand that anything you put on the internet can be found and used for/against you at some point. Having a totally clean facebook profile in the midst of so many that aren't is going to look good to employers who are pulling up profile after profile with offensives material in it. I think it IS a little harsh to tell a college kid not to be in groups because they include a "cuss" word...I mean, that won't impress employers, but it isn't as offensive as illegal activity, for instance. But she's probably trying to make one rule to cover all bases...for instance...a lot of people joined a group that was something like "What the f did I do last night?...f, no I didn't...I did? F". There is a difference between that and "I wish facebook had a b-slap button".

It would make more sense to me if she were reviewing public profiles periodically, but it seems strange to me that she insists on seeing pages that aren't visible to anyone but friends. I think people should be mindful about what they have even on private profiles, but it's hard to figure out how it is panhellenic's business.

And here's a random question: when a person starts looking for jobs or internships, can't he or she deactivate his or her profile completely?

Honestly, I think it IS that big of a deal. It's too bad I'm not still in college, because I would DARE the self-appointed internet police to try to control what I have on the internet. What authority does she have for her actions -- someone should question this before she gets even more out of control. She sounds like the Dale -- er, Hoosier of PHC.

It sounds like this woman has her head so far up her ass she doesn't realize how absolutely ridiculous it is for her to try to control what every sorority member posts on facebook. She says she wants to break the "stereotype" of sororities -- so she's being a super-controlling, tightass freak who gets to tell everyone what they can and cannot do on the internet? Please. I think crap like that makes us look even worse than belonging to a group that uses profanity or "bad words" (what does that even mean?).

if this facebook rule is not written into the panhellenic bylaws, then she has no more control over facebook photos or groups that sorority members join than the man in the moon. if the rule is not official, and she is trying to create her own rules and standards for everyone else to live by and is bypassing the correct procedure to have a new rule passed, then the other panhellenic officers or the greek life advisor (or all) should tell her that she is out of bounds, a memo should be sent to all the campus sorority presidents stating that, and that should be the end of it.

i would pursue this until you find out what is what.

We're having a problem with Facebook as well, but not that someone is going a bit crazy checking them. 3 of the 6 sororities on campus have been put on social probation for Facebook. Someone not in the Greek community reported them, and mainly it was because of only one or two profiles. My chapter is just warning us to make sure they are cleaned up, and have been doing so even before the 3 went on probation.

Our Greek Director of Student Organizations supposedly goes through our Facebook. Personally, you shouldn't put stuff up that would look bad to an employer, etc. but it's your choice. It is getting to be a problem, but I don't think that makes it ok to make people resign from groups, although I understand the whole image of being Greek thing.

My personal opinion is that nobody should worry about regulating the image of being Greek. A particular group has an interest in protecting the image of that group, but trying to impose an image standard on the whole system and every individual in it is silly and counter-productive.

However, there's a big difference between trying to contol "image" and using self-posted photographs to decide that people are engaging in activities that are illegal and/or contrary to the schools student code of conduct.

If you are brazen enough to leave up photos of yourself or members of your group breaking the law or school and GLOs rules, you deserve whatever sanctions you get hit with.

And I also think it's weird that it has become a panhellenic officer's job to screen an entire system's facebook pages. That's kind of crazy.

Something no one has addressed is that sometimes these pages can present/create safety issues. When people put their schedule of events on there you know where they are going to be when, with who, and if you are on a campus where chapters have houses you know where they live, so possibly when they will/won't be home, etc.

I know that at our last convention "social networking" sites were addressed as being potentially dangerous and not just from a PR/image standpoint.