1.0 PURPOSE
Northland Pioneer College encourages the use of social media to connect with others, including students, employees, alumni and the community. Social media sites are excellent venues to communicate and encourage engaging discussions about the college’s current events, issues, accolades, organizations and people. This procedure defines the rules and process for establishing and using social media sites on behalf of NPC.
2.0 SCOPE
Social media is a general term used to reference the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. Websites and applications dedicated to forums, microblogging, social networking, social bookmarking, social curation and wikis are just some of the different types of social media. The list of popular social media sites changes and grows every day. This policy applies to all use of social media in an official capacity by NPC students, faculty.
3.0 PROCEDURE
3.1 The Director of Marketing & Public Relations is responsible for the enforcement of this procedure and is a resource to the college community for launching and maintaining NPC social media initiatives. Before setting up any social media accounts that will represent the college or NPC departments, programs, student clubs or affiliated organizations, college employees and students must seek approval and guidance from the office of Marketing & Public Relations.
3.2 All official NPC social media sites must adhere to state and federal laws and regulations and college policies. Only public information may be posted on official NPC social media sites and must not contain copyrighted material, sensitive personal information or other confidential information as defined by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), as applicable. Any sensitive personal information or other confidential information posted on an official NPC social media site must be removed by the site administrator as soon as possible upon discovery.
3.3 NPC is committed to fostering an educational environment that allows for freedoms of speech and expression in accordance with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Certain speech, however, is not subject to Frist Amendment Protection. This includes unlawful, defamatory, or obscene speech as well as true threats and incitement of violence. The college reserves the right to remove any posting or online activity in violation of law or college policy without notice. NPC also reserves the right to refer inappropriate social media activity to the applicable social media platform and/or appropriate authorities for appropriate action.
3.4 Any employee using social media as a part of his or her official duties, and/or when presenting oneself in a social media setting as a college representative, must comply with applicable college policies governing employee behavior and acceptable use of electronic and information resources. Posting on behalf of the college, its departments and programs, is a privilege and not a right; it can be rescinded at any time. Employees and students must never represent their personal opinions as institutionally endorsed by NPC.
3.5 Primary administrative rights for official NPC social media sites will be assigned only to college employees. Official NPC social media sites will have a minimum of two site administrators to ensure that the platform is consistently managed. It is the responsibility of the site administrator of a social media account to actively monitor the social media site; content must be current and accurate. Should one site administrator be unavailable, the second assigned administrator will manage the site. At least one of the two site administrators should be a permanent, full-time college employee. Employees and students may only endorse NPC, its programs, or its services if they have been authorized to do so by the college.
3.6 All official NPC social media sites must comply with any approved applicable college branding standards as set by the office of Marketing & Public Relations.
3.7 Social media may generate interest from the press (print, television, radio, online). Employees and students who are contacted in any way by a member of the press about a NPC posting made in an official capacity are required to immediately contact NPC’s Director of Marketing & Public Relations.
3.8 NPC employees outside of the Marketing Office and students posting on behalf of the college should never respond in an official capacity to negative posts by the public, angry students, or employees. Official responses to these posts will be handled solely by the NPC Marketing Office. Students, faculty and staff are requested to notify the Director of Marketing immediately upon becoming aware of any such.
Based on Policy #1296; New 6/27/19
