Another look at privacy: sororities and online content
Sororities designate officers to monitor sites like Facebook to protect members from self-incrimination.
Joel Pavelski
Issue date: 11/12/09 Section: News
Since August 2009, two Hillsdale sororities have added a student officer whose responsibilities include updating the chapter's Web site and planting support pages on Facebook, but in some cases also monitoring chapter members' photo uploads.
Chi Omega and Pi Beta Phi sororities both added official "webmasters."
Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority assigned these duties to its public relations chair currently, junior Katie DeLapp.
Senior Amanda Ruetz, webmaster for Chi Omega, was the first member appointed to the position when it was created last fall. Her main responsibility is managing the sorority's Web site (https://everyday.chiomega.com/) and creating fan pages on Facebook. But, she said, because of the rules of the sorority and legal concerns, she also trolls through Facebook photos as a part of her job description.
"We just make sure people aren't putting up pictures of underage drinking or people being crazy," she said. "I message someone on Facebook and people usually listen and take it down right away."
The sorority created the position, Ruetz said, to guard against someone reporting rule-breaking sisters up the hill or to the national sorority organization.
"My sophomore year some kid sent pictures of me and my friends in The Suites to the deans," she said. "There were alcohol bottles there, and the guys in the suite got in trouble."
Senior Megan Huening, president of Pi Beta Phi sorority, said in an email to The Collegian that senior Claire Schefke did not check Facebook as a part of her job as webmaster.
Kappa Kappa Gamma president Sarah Holland said that her sorority has the same rules as any other organizations: don't put incriminating information on the Internet.
"If you don't want your parents to see it, don't put it up there. If you don't want the college to see it, don't put it up there," she said.
The main focus of Delapp's job as public relations chairman is managing relations with alumni, professors and students, but she said she also monitors members' online content on forums such as Facebook.
Chi Omega and Pi Beta Phi sororities both added official "webmasters."
Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority assigned these duties to its public relations chair currently, junior Katie DeLapp.
Senior Amanda Ruetz, webmaster for Chi Omega, was the first member appointed to the position when it was created last fall. Her main responsibility is managing the sorority's Web site (https://everyday.chiomega.com/) and creating fan pages on Facebook. But, she said, because of the rules of the sorority and legal concerns, she also trolls through Facebook photos as a part of her job description.
"We just make sure people aren't putting up pictures of underage drinking or people being crazy," she said. "I message someone on Facebook and people usually listen and take it down right away."
The sorority created the position, Ruetz said, to guard against someone reporting rule-breaking sisters up the hill or to the national sorority organization.
"My sophomore year some kid sent pictures of me and my friends in The Suites to the deans," she said. "There were alcohol bottles there, and the guys in the suite got in trouble."
Senior Megan Huening, president of Pi Beta Phi sorority, said in an email to The Collegian that senior Claire Schefke did not check Facebook as a part of her job as webmaster.
Kappa Kappa Gamma president Sarah Holland said that her sorority has the same rules as any other organizations: don't put incriminating information on the Internet.
"If you don't want your parents to see it, don't put it up there. If you don't want the college to see it, don't put it up there," she said.
The main focus of Delapp's job as public relations chairman is managing relations with alumni, professors and students, but she said she also monitors members' online content on forums such as Facebook.
Be the first to comment on this story