You Mean There’s A Cost To Being Stupid?

Any student who has or is thinking about creating a really cool persona on Facebook — or on any other online directory or personal website — should read the following article …

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/11/us/11recruit.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Student: “Hey I’m cool … see the photo of me pointing a toy pistol at my friend?”

Recruiter: “Gail, look at this. Isn’t that the guy we interviewed up at Fitchburg last week?”

RWH, at 6:35 am EDT on June 15, 2006

I don’t think this story indicates that there is any organized effort by any school to scour facebook for “bad behavior.” There are, however, sporadic instances where some administrators or security-types take it upon themselves to surf the web in the name of “safety.”

A few points general points:

1. While, of course, these behaviors may adversely impact a student’s job prospects, do they impact a student’s prospects in academe? Should academics be denying would-be grad students admission or funding on the basis of whether they think their website doesn’t seem mature enough? At some point, such discretion will turn into discrimination, as, for example, a Myspace website might indicate that a student is gay or “very” ethnic, and a committee could deem that to be an unacceptable characteristic.

2. Before Myspace there was the simple web. While many students were too busy partying to learn HTML, a student could easily put his political viewpoints or scholarly work. This might just as well lead to a denial of a job. Likewise, so could a letter to an editor, or an op-ed piece in the Times.

3. Students in school do many things that are not considered “normal” in polite society. For instance, many of them do activities in the nude. Some are even paid to pose nude by the school! Some employers might not like this, but it is hardly an indication of immaturity.

4. Finally, for all of the drunkenness and partying displayed on Myspace, drunkenness and partying is, for many students a part of being a student, and often ends up helping people get jobs, as they are considered fun to be with. Some members of fraternities or sororities deliberately hire unqualified people precisely because they partied with them. At least Myspace just gets this out in the open. (For what it is worth, I don’t hire former fratboys or sorostitutes, and I will tell them straight up, that I think that admitting on a resume that they are a member of a non-service or non-professional fraternity detracts from whatever qualifications they have.)

Larry, at 9:30 am EDT on June 15, 2006

“Twenty other students were suspended for viewing the post.”

What? What? WHAT! First Amendment, helloooo? Due process, Helloooo?

Utopian, at 10:40 am EDT on June 15, 2006

The 20 Viewers

Granted, Larry. Granted. But still. I mean, come on. That seems pretty ridiculous. I understand that there are lots of legal nuances here, but just in terms of right and wrong... this one seems like it would fall under wrong. Oversimplified, I know. But still.

Daniel, Wash U, at 12:50 pm EDT on June 15, 2006

In Florida, while Student Affairs people are not looking at every picture, they do look at them. Student Orientation Leaders and Resident Assistants have been denied jobs and positions due to underage drinking photos (not the image the university wants to portray).

In one situation, an RA went on a cruise during Spring Break with sone of his residents (the residents were underage), was completely wasted with his residents, posted the photos. Now the residents were “legal” while on the cruise, but RAs are supposed to have a certain image in public and intoxication with your residents is against the rules. He was fired.

Florida, at 8:40 pm EDT on June 15, 2006

Daniel and Florida

Florida, You need to provide specifics about the incident, and probably this person’s name, so that the incident can be verified. Usually, in my experience these “firings” are really for simply not doing some specific thing that they are required to do. Strangely, FSU and UoF are widely regarded as party schools, anyway, so I don’t’ know what image they would have to preserve.

Daniel, Since people are making legal arguments, then one needs to be specific. As Shawn points out they did more than just view. Strangely, joining a group that hates a person is protected under the constitution. (Indeed, the framers were quite clear on this one.) So, the school might ultimately be wrong.

Larry, at 6:15 am EDT on June 19, 2006

For years, companies and grad schools have accepted students that engaged in typical degenerate college behavior, and never knew about it. I am sure many of the great CEOs or professionals out there were drunk every weekend at college and their future employers had no way of knowing. So then why should employers care what their prospective employees do in their personal time?

There is a strong correlation between risk takers and life sucess.

And to the gentleman above who said he would never hire someone from a social fraternity: I would suggest you strongly rethink that. How ignorant of you. Greek organizations raise millions for charity each year and provide the same leadership opportunities as any other club would. Greeks have, on average, higher GPAs than most college students do and are often involved in many other activities. Since the inception of fraternities, all but two US presidents were Greek. It is possible that you have just seen Animal House too many times or bought into the media bias that doesn’t tell you what we do for society.

- Brian Roller, Tau Delta Phi

Brian, Christopher Newport Univeristy, at 12:30 pm EDT on June 19, 2006