In support of educating students on their rights concerning social networking Web sites such as Facebook, MySpace and LiveJournal, the Student Association passed a resolution on Monday night calling for the Office of Judicial Affairs to review its past actions regarding these networks.

The resolution comes at a time when the use of such social networks, which allow students to post personal information – including pictures of themselves – on Web sites, have been used against them if they are accused of going against the Code of Student Conduct, said Menotti Minutillo, SA’s director of technology and the author of the bill.

‘The students are concerned about the resources Judicial Affairs uses to respond to allegations,’ he said. ‘We want to make sure that we’re involved with this as well.’

With the passing of this bill, SA places communication on these types of Web sites on the same level as written or verbal speech as far as protection goes, Minutillo said. It calls on Judicial Affairs not to use Facebook and other such sites to enforce university rules, except if the information found on these sites is useful when investigating accusations against a student.

Also, SA urges Judicial Affairs to create a policy similar to Miranda rights in order to better inform accused SU community members of their rights.

As it stands now, Judicial Affairs does not actively use Facebook to accuse students of violations of the Code of Student Conduct, Minutillo said. But if the office receives a complaint of a violation, it will sometimes use the network to investigate the validity of the complaints and ‘make an example’ of the accused student, he said.

‘It’s used more as a teaching tool than as evidence,’ Minutillo said.

Lastly, the association recommended the creation of a panel that would define a policy for social networking Web sites regarding students’ rights and responsibilities and would educate students about these rights, especially incoming students, Minutillo said.

At other universities, Minutillo said he has found the students’ opinions regarding university policy on Facebook have been largely ignored. At Pennsylvania State University, its judicial office used Facebook against students who rushed the field at a football game. It is for this reason the proposed panel would be composed of members of Judicial Affairs, faculty, staff and students, he said.

‘We want students to say how they want (social networking Web sites) to be used as well,’ Minutillo said.

For the most part, the bill received positive feedback from the Assembly.

‘It is an issue that the students in general care about and want to know about,’ Chief-of-Staff Ryan Kelly said.

Representative Yusuf Abdul-Qadir noted people who post personal information on the Internet should be held accountable.

‘When you put something on a public Web site, you bear the responsibility,’ he said.

The association also discussed its new financial vision for the current session regarding the allocation of money from the Student Activity Fee to student organizations.

It agreed operating expenses to an organization should not exceed 22 percent of the budget, programming expenses no more than 70 percent and expenses for publications no more than 8 percent. This last percentage was raised from the last session, said President Wayne Horton.

Comptroller Michael Brannen proposed a bill to allocate $605.65 from the Special Programming Fund to the Cabaret Performance Troupe for a performance at Grant Auditorium on April 8. The bill was passed.

Horton said in his weekly report he and Vice President Bryan Dumas met with officials from Goldstein Student Center on South Campus to discuss the possibility of keeping the student center open until 1 a.m. Right now, it closes at midnight. He said more discussion needs to be done, but the later closing time may be enacted as early as this or next semester.

Published on April 3, 2006 at 12:00 pm