Purpose
Establish guidelines, goals, and objectives for the management and use of Student Success Initiatives’ (SSI) social media channels. SSI is part of Enrollment Management within the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost at The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin).
Scope
Compliance with these guidelines is applicable for SSI staff members, student ambassadors, and social media users interacting with social media channels managed by SSI.
These guidelines align with The University of Texas at Austin’s policies and standards on student discipline and conduct, Title IX, and Website Accessibility.
Monitoring
SSI’s social media platforms are regularly monitored by SSI page administrators during normal business hours, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. While administrators are responsible for moderating content, they cannot immediately review or respond to every comment. SSI is not responsible for any posts or content that is not our own and cannot guarantee the accuracy of those posts. Opinions expressed in non-university posts are not necessarily those of the university and its employees.
Objectives
Official “Class Of” Facebook Groups
The objective of the official Texas “Class Of” Facebook groups is to create a sense of community among students. Most of the content in the official “Class Of” Facebook groups is user-generated by group members with limited involvement from group administrators. Administrators will moderate pages and provide important updates or resources when necessary. Official “Class Of” Facebook groups are closed to the public, and only students belonging to the class will be admitted by page administrators.
“Class Of” Instagram and Twitter Pages
The objective of the “Class Of” Instagram and Twitter pages is to provide information pertaining to on-campus events, resources, and updates. The “Class Of” Instagram and Twitter accounts are public pages.
Community Guidelines
The social media channels maintained by Student Success Initiatives (SSI) are intended to provide communication to students and facilitate conversation among students beyond traditional communication methods. These pages are considered official channels of The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin); as such, members’ posts should reflect the values expected of all of UT Austin’s students and employees as defined by the university’s Nondiscrimination Policy and Standards of Conduct.
We encourage you to use social media to have meaningful dialogue with fellow Longhorns. However, when necessary, page administrators reserve the right to remove user-generated content or comments if they violate university policy, such as content or comments that contain, or link to, any of the items listed below:
- Abusive, malicious, discriminatory material or racial slurs
- Personal attacks to an individual or threats of violence
- Illegal activities, promotion of drinking or drugs
- Advertisements of any form, repetitive posts or spam
- Pornographic material
- Copyrighted material
- Personally identifiable/sensitive personal information (e.g., class schedules, EIDs, student residence information, usernames, etc.)
- Links to outside pages not accessible to page administrators
Members who post any of the above content and/or violate the law or university policy may be removed or blocked by a page administrator at any time. Page administrators may also need to report posts to appropriate authorities if there are areas of concern.
For safety reasons, posts containing personal information such as email addresses, phone numbers, mailing addresses, class schedules, identification numbers, or usernames will be removed. The Information Security Office provides privacy tips for ways to protect your personal information on social media.
Again, we are committed to maintaining a healthy dialogue and creating a welcoming and safe community for all Longhorns on all social media platforms. Please direct any questions or concerns to Student Success Initiatives at studentsuccess@utexas.edu.
We’re thrilled to have you as part of our Longhorn family here on the Forty Acres! Hook ‘Em!
-Student Success Initiatives
Updated November 2017