Nichols College encourages its students to become involved and connected to the community in as many ways as possible. The Internet has provided additional ways for communication to occur. However, with these additional means of networking and communicating, community members must exercise extra care and diligence. The goal of this policy is to help students become aware of the added responsibility associated with these opportunities for networking and communicating.
Communication on sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Xanga, YouTube, and LiveJournal, though logins are often required, represent public and open communication. Communications on such sites are not specifically monitored by College officials, but may be brought to the attention of College officials when they are seen as possible violations of the Student Code of Conduct.
As with other public arenas, information found on Internet sites can be used in a student's judicial meeting, and/or civil/criminal proceedings. Information that can be used may include, but is not limited to: wall postings, journal entries, blog postings, pictures, videos, comments, and other openly accessible communications. Messages between individuals - instant messengers, text-messaging, email, Facebook messages, or other electronic forms of communications - may also be used in judicial proceedings.
Students should be aware that the Internet is considered a public forum and information posted there can be viewed by anyone. Caution in the information made available to others is encouraged.
(Adapted with permission from Quinnipiac University)