Enforcing Social Media Standards
 

We have an upperclassman brother who has two images of himself on social media with beer in his hand, and he's only 20. For the first one, I asked that he take it down, and his response was honestly yelling at me saying, "OMG who cares I'm 20 let me live my life" and he stormed off. A second image has been posted last night. One of our newer brothers confronted him (after having been in trouble for the same incident himself) and the upperclassmen brother said the same thing, and that he doesn't understand the big deal.

He's kind of a checked-out brother, so I don't even know if meeting with Standards is going to do anything. He'll just refuse. How can we handle this when he just won't listen and gives a lot of diva attitude when we try and approach it 1-on-1?

This is a really random question, but is he from/has he lived abroad? Most countries consider our alcohol policies for legal adults age 18-20 Draconian and asinine. (Prob because they are)

No, he is 100% from the United States and has never left the country.
And of course, I understand that the USA rules differ than other countries, but it's still a law and whether I like it or not I want to uphold it, especially when it's on social media. :/

If a Standards hearing doesn't work, someone may want to talk to the Greek Life Director/IFC about the situation.

They definitely are.

Frankly, I doubt there's much you can do. Is there a written policy (national or chapter) that clearly states that brothers will not post pictures on social media showing themselves with alcohol if they are underage, or showing themselves doing something similarly illegal? If there is, then it becomes a question of how far you're willing to go to enforce it. If there isn't, there really isn't much of a leg to stand on, and social/peer pressure is about all you have to work with.

And to be clear—posting a picture showing alcohol present at a chapter function, which raises risk management issues, is not the same as posting a picture where he's having a beer with friends, but where the chapter isn't clearly implicated.

I know with our standards they said no underage drinking whether it'd be with letters or not. But we also had to sign a media contract saying that we would act in good taste (ie: no profanity or promoting underage drinking). Did you guys have that by any chance?

This is one of those questions which you're going to need either your chapter adviser or at least someone from your organization to answer.

If this happened in my chapter, my recognition would be to call him to our honor council (like standards) and if he refuses that, I'd recommend trial code procedures to boot him from the organization. You don't need members with that sort of attitude. It's bad for morale and can be dangerous if they don't seem to care about your organization's policies.

You can punish him if it violates your standards, but are you also going to stalk all your members across all social media 24/7 to police them?

uh, he's got proof on line that he is breaking a federal law, I doubt that your order would allow for that.

Bring him before standards board, follow due process and if he gives you more push-back, put him on probation and then dismiss him. Either he pull it off the internet, or go away. If your national organization saw what he posted I doubt they would be as lenient as you are trying to be.

I do :)

The drinking age is a state law thing. All of the states have the same drinking age because the feds condition a uniform age as a requisite for paying out funds for highways.

In other words, blackmail.

And this guy kinda sounds like he'd be a douche in any instance. In this particular one he's a high-tech douche. Do with him what you would do.with any other douchey member.

What Kevin said about it being state law. And unless it is clear from the picture that what he is holding is absolutely, no question, beer, I wouldn't call it "proof." They have a picture showing him appear to break drinking age laws.

And ditto to everything 33girl said.

lol...alright, a STATE law....really does it matter if it's a state or federal law???? It's a law.

You are also right that unless he has a beer can or other identifying alcoholic beverage in his hands, it's not really "proof". Again, does it really matter? If he's holding a cup that has what looks like an alcoholic beverage in it and everyone that sees it assumes that it's alcohol, it really doesn't matter if it is or isn't. I makes a statement about your membership and your organization. I don't know about any of your organizations, but DZ is pretty strict on what they will allow and it doesn't matter if it's identifiable as alcohol or not, or even if you are 21 and older, any beverages that appear to be alcoholic (including solo cups), any behavior that paints the member (and DZ by default) in a negative way, any references to drinking or alcohol (or drugs/other illegal activities) or the before/after-effects of drinking are prohibited, whether the members are in their letters or not.

I imagine the other sororities have a similar social media policy. Fraternities I would guess have something similar but probably not as stringent. Ultimately, you have every right to require a certain level of behavior from your members and how they represent your organization and if they choose to violate that standard, it's your responsibility to enforce and uphold those standards. If members choose to not follow the standard you have set, then send them on their way. Sometimes in matters like this if you give an inch, they'll take a mile.

If you really are a CCD, you should probably educate yourself about what's what legally and show some maturity instead of doing the equivalent of rolling your eyes and saying "whatEVER" when someone corrects you. You sound like a petulant child.