professors on facebook: post with care
Rachel Kemp
Issue date: 3/11/10 Section: Opinion
On Feb. 26, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported the suspension of East Stroudsburg University Associate Professor of Sociology, Gloria Y. Gadsden, after a student reported her "threatening" Facebook statuses to the administration.
On separate occasions in the past month, Gadsden posted "Had a good day today, didn't want to kill even one student.:-) Now Friday was a different story ..." and "Does anyone know where I can find a very discrete hitman, it's been that kind of day."
Gadsden's explanation was that she uses her Facebook page to "vent" her frustration to her friends and family. She also told the Chronicle that she thinks the suspension might be revenge for an op-ed article she wrote for the Chronicle about the difficulties in being a black professor. After the article was published, she filed a racial-harassment claim due to the reactions of her fellow professors.
I have no problem with professors having Facebook pages.
I'm friends with Associate Professor of English John Somerville on Facebook and on my homepage I often see Somerville's statuses about the beautiful weather he ran in that day or music videos he enjoys. And once in a while, his "friend" Chuck Hinkley will invite me to a "Banjorama" event. All pretty harmless stuff.
If Somerville posted a status like Gadsden's, I don't think I would take it too seriously. But I also don't think Somerville would ever feel the need to "vent" his emotions on an online networking community, especially when he knows his students can and do read it.
In her defense, Gadsden said that she didn't realize her students could read her page, and these posts were only meant to be seen by her family and friends. I would think that being a teacher at a university where your students probably spend considerable amounts of time on Facebook would entail a little caution on her part.
Also, to rely on her Facebook to release anger or frustration seems like a rather immature use of the Web site. Isn't that what 16-year-old girls do on MySpace?
On separate occasions in the past month, Gadsden posted "Had a good day today, didn't want to kill even one student.:-) Now Friday was a different story ..." and "Does anyone know where I can find a very discrete hitman, it's been that kind of day."
Gadsden's explanation was that she uses her Facebook page to "vent" her frustration to her friends and family. She also told the Chronicle that she thinks the suspension might be revenge for an op-ed article she wrote for the Chronicle about the difficulties in being a black professor. After the article was published, she filed a racial-harassment claim due to the reactions of her fellow professors.
I have no problem with professors having Facebook pages.
I'm friends with Associate Professor of English John Somerville on Facebook and on my homepage I often see Somerville's statuses about the beautiful weather he ran in that day or music videos he enjoys. And once in a while, his "friend" Chuck Hinkley will invite me to a "Banjorama" event. All pretty harmless stuff.
If Somerville posted a status like Gadsden's, I don't think I would take it too seriously. But I also don't think Somerville would ever feel the need to "vent" his emotions on an online networking community, especially when he knows his students can and do read it.
In her defense, Gadsden said that she didn't realize her students could read her page, and these posts were only meant to be seen by her family and friends. I would think that being a teacher at a university where your students probably spend considerable amounts of time on Facebook would entail a little caution on her part.
Also, to rely on her Facebook to release anger or frustration seems like a rather immature use of the Web site. Isn't that what 16-year-old girls do on MySpace?
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