1. Introduction
Today’s emerging communications technologies afford us unprecedented opportunities to learn about what is going on in the world, share our ideas on important issues, and promote our events and accomplishments. Along with these opportunities comes a responsibility to engage social media in ways that not only support our institutional values but also enhance and protect our institutional brand in living upto the motto Flamma ardens et lucens- a flame that enlightens and enlivens.
Salesian College recognizes the numerous benefits and opportunities that social media presents. We actively use social media to disseminate information about academic activities of the College to the general public, success stories and to communicate research and enhance the College’s public image online. Therefore, College actively encourages the students by keeping in mind the integrity of the institution to make effective, appropriate and responsible use of social media channels to build a positive public image for the college to benefit the College fraternity in the long run.
Despite the opportunities presented by social media, there are also risks. Social media allows individuals to communicate with a potentially huge audience, and sometimes its informality can encourage us to be less cautious than we would be using other more traditional methods of communication and interaction.
This policy for the students, support staff and faculty and provides information on the appropriate use of social media when connected, or linked in some way, to their status as a member of the college, or when directly or indirectly referencing to the college in any way.
For the purpose of this policy, the term ‘Social Media’ is used to describe channels dedicated to community-based input, interactions, content sharing and collaboration. Websites and applications dedicated to forums, microblogging, social networking, social bookmarking, social curation and wikis are among the different types of social media. They currently include, but are not limited to, Facebook (and Messenger), Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Allo, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, Pinterest, and Google+, Google reviews, Quora.
This policy applies to social media communications made both on public and private forums. While posts added to public forums can be seen by any member of the public from the date of publication, students are asked to remember that posts added to private forums can also be shared publically by others. There have been a number of high-profile cases where students across the country have been disciplined after offensive comments, made on private messaging services such as WhatsApp, were captured and subsequently shared. With this in mind, students should remember that action can be taken by the College if behaviour failing to meet policy guidelines is identified either publically or privately.
