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To find out who did what this past weekend, the typical college student will jump on Facebook to check out photos and statuses, many including specific references to drinking and partying underage. No big deal to post pictures of yourself drunk for friends to see, right?
Wrong. Statistics collected this summer by the Vanguard Company on the impact of social networking sites and career revealed 44 percent of employers use social networking sites such as Facebook to check out job candidates before hiring. Forty percent admitted to eliminating employees because of incriminating photos or blurbs found online.
"The number one rule when it comes to posting things online: if you wouldn't do it offline, don't do it online," C.L. Lindsay, founder of the Coalition for Student and Academic Rights, told a group of 20 Viterbo students and faculty on Sept. 28 in the Reinhart Center.
Lindsay described himself as an "attorney at large for all college students." Earning his bachelor's degree from Ohio's Denison University, Lindsay went on to receive his juris doctorate from the University of Michigan and began practicing law in New York City.
In 1998, Lindsay left his job to found the Coalition for Student and Academic Rights, commonly referred to as CO-STAR. CO-STAR is a non-profit national students' rights program that helps college students around America with legal problems free of charge. Today, Lindsay acts as president of CO-STAR and teaches law and literature at the University of Pennsylvania.
During the first month of getting CO-STAR up and running, Lindsay received 150 requests from students for help with legal issues.
"One-hundred and forty-nine of those requests had to do with under-age drinking," he said. Today CO-STAR is operating under 200 attorneys who receive over 100,000 requests for legal advice a year.
Lindsay warned students to be aware that posting pictures online allows millions of people to access the information. "If you post a picture on Facebook it would be equivalent to printing off thousands of copies and posting them around the world in public places."
Lindsay also warned college students about university privacy policies, describing the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to be "the beginning, middle, and end of all your rights."
The Fourth Amendment grants rights of personal privacy to U.S. citizens against unreasonable searches or seizures. However, the Fourth Amendment does not apply on campus property as universities operate under their own private legal grounds.
Universities possess separate security guards and judicial officials to instill on-campus rules and regulations, Lindsay said. If pictures or descriptions of students engaging in illegal activities are found online, they can be used as evidence in on-campus hearings. The standard of proof used in on-campus disciplinary hearings is "more likely than not," meaning officials need only be 51 percent sure a violation occurred to give out a penalty.
Lindsay used Viterbo University as an example, pointing out the rights of privacy specified in the Viterbo Student Handbook basically say, "No expectation of privacy, only in softer language." College officials can look at anything posted online.
"Where does this leave you?" Lindsay asked. "Very exposed."
Alex Metzler, junior biology major from Onalaska, Wis., said after listening to Lindsay's presentation, "Sharing information about yourself has become so easy and fast with today's technology. Most people don't think twice about posting pictures or the possible consequences that accompany it."
Kasie Von Haden, sophomore English major from Tomah, Wis., agreed with Metzler after attending the presentation, saying, "I don't think people look at the consequences or even know the consequences of simply posting a picture online."
As president of CO-STAR, Lindsay said attorney's see a majority of requests for legal advice when it comes to students running into trouble with universities for posting pictures online of underage drinking. CO-STAR also receives many requests for help from students who have been caught plagiarizing.
"College students cheat a lot," Lindsay said. The Center for Academic Integrity conducted a survey with 50,000 students over 60 campuses and found 70 percent admitted to cheating. Twenty-five percent said they had cheated on a test, 50 percent had reported cheating on a written assignment, and 40 percent admitted to cutting and pasting from online material.
Lindsay characterized plagiarism as theft. "It's taking someone's work and using it as your own," he said. With online websites such as "Best Essays," "Welcome to Essay Town," and "Non-Plagiarized College Term Papers.com," students are easily able to find and access plagiarized work.
Every month, CO-STAR will buy some of the "custom" essays available on the online sites to keep track of what is out there. As a professor of English, Lindsay described the essays as "D or F" papers that are "as old as heck." Also, CO-STAR attorneys have dealt with many students who have been scammed out of money from trying to buy essays online.
"Your chances of getting caught are very high," Lindsay said. If a student is caught plagiarizing, there is usually little CO-STAR can do to soften a student's punishment. Lindsay reiterated, "If it's against the rules offline, it's against the rules online."
To protect oneself online, Lindsay offered several tips of advice: Only use a credit card online under secure sites identified by https://, use the highest privacy setting on social network sites, do not post photos of yourself online participating in illegal activities, check out your friend's Facebook or MySpace pages so they are not posting incriminating pictures of you.
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