Is This Legal?

[James]

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.

[DSTRen13]

Originally Posted by Phi_Mu_Belle

Recently the PHC Public Relations chair on our campus has set certain "guidelines" for the things we can and can't have on our personal Facebook pages. This includes things such as no alcohol anywhere in the picture if you're under 21, no profanity or belonging to "questionable" groups. She is going through and checking two pages per chapter each week to check for these things. While I can understand (to an extent) where she is coming from, I do not agree with this. I do not have any of the above on my Facebook so I have nothing to worry about, but I do not think we should be "misrepresenting" ourselves. Her argument is that she wants to break the stereotype of sororities, but I don’t really see how this accomplishes things. What I am wondering is if what she is asking us to do “legal” in the sorority world? If so, I guess we’ll have to adhere to her rules but I just have this feeling that she’s getting more personal satisfaction out of this than using it to “better Greek recruitment.” Anyone know anything about this? Thanks!

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.

[sdsuchelle]

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.

[minDyG]

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.

[Phi_Mu_Belle]

And I thought our problem here was bad...

[Taualumna]

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.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by Taualumna

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?

[FSUZeta]

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 ?

[daydreamer1112]

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.

[UGAalum94]

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?)

[ZTAngel]

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

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

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?

[FSUZeta]

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.

[Phi_Mu_Belle]

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

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

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.

[FSUZeta]

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

[UGAalum94]

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