The wildly successful social-networking site, facebook.com, has experienced massive growth in the past year and a half. Students at WC have used the site to meet future roommates, announce parties and form groups surrounding such platforms as remembering John Toll's presidency and the nuisance of getting a high heel stuck between the bricks of Cater Walk.
Student/athletes at Washington must be a bit more cautious when surfing, or posting to, Facebook.com, however. Following several embarrassing incidents at other colleges and universities where photos of team members engaging in unruly behavior prompted school officials to take action against students, as well as the continuing fiasco that is the Duke lacrosse scandal, the College has taken the preemptive and controversial step of monitoring student/athletes' online profiles. Coaches ask players to take down images depicting students in unbecoming poses. Is that censorship or common sense?
"The issue," notes soccer player Erin O'Brien '08, "is not just the consumption of alcohol, but also the behavior of student/athletes, who are publicly identified with the school. Whether we like it or not, we—as athletes—are ambassadors for the college, and our actions reflect upon this institution. Facebook is a great way to communicate with friends, but, even with its strong emphasis on privacy, we can never be sure who's reading our thoughts or looking at our pictures. Obviously the athletics department has no problem gaining access to our profiles."
Some programs, including men's lacrosse, have banned entirely student/athlete accounts on Facebook.com and MySpace.com, another popular site. Due to the team's high visibility, as well as the possibly unfair association of lacrosse and off-the-field shenanigans, players were advised to delete their Facebook profiles and save themselves and their team any potential embarrassment. Matt Sparks '07, a team captain this year, told Elm reporters that players who value their online identity more than their team should "reevaluate their priorities," and by all accounts the team has moved on and is gearing up for another great year. As far as the potential blow to the players' social lives, we expect that they will somehow manage to survive.
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