Social Media Policy | Marketing | Willamette University

Purpose:

As a private University, Willamette University's Social Media Policy creates a contractual relationship with those who post on social media accounts owned by or claiming affiliation with the University. The University encourages students, employees, parents, alumni, prospective students and community members to use social media to enhance learning, facilitate discussion, communicate news and build community. This policy aims to enable the proper creation, moderation and management of the University community’s social media accounts. This policy governs Willamette University community members who produce content for, interact on or manage social media affiliated with Willamette University.

All University-Affiliated Accounts are governed by this policy.

Definitions related to this Policy:

Social media: Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking, including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, Vimeo, WhatsApp, Snapchat and Messenger.

University-Affiliated Account: Any account that claims affiliation with Willamette University and/or uses Willamette University, Bearcats or derivations of these in its account name or description, including all accounts representing the University’s colleges, departments, divisions and offices or other Willamette-affiliated accounts that are owned or moderated by University employees and students. This does not include employees and students’ personal accounts.

Types of University-Affiliated Accounts

Page: A public social media account viewable to any user.
Group: A social media account with moderated membership including Facebook groups
(includes both private and public groups) and messaging groups on WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram messenger and other text- or message-based applications. These include groups for specific affiliations, such as students, employees, prospective students, alumni, members of a class or major, and parents.
Student-Run Account: Any page or group representing a student organization and run by students for students.
Big W Accounts: Social media accounts representing the entire University administered by Marketing and Communications.
Flagship Accounts: Any page or groups representing the Big W, the colleges (CAS, Law, MBA, TIUA, PNCA, or other future colleges), Office of Admission, Willamette Bearcats, the Office of Alumni and Parent Engagement and the Mark O. Hatfield Library.

Types of Users:

User: A participant on a social media page; includes the subgroups listed below.
Member: A user who participates in a social media group.
Administrator: The main owners of a social media account, who are responsible for content creation, publishing, moderation, password management, and assigning and removing account administrators and moderators. Some media require one Administrator be designated the “Owner” of the account.
Moderator: A non-administrator with login access to a social media account, who creates, edits and posts content, moderates comments and membership, or manages passwords. For the sake of this policy, moderators include editors, managers and other similar non-administrator roles on social media.
Content Producer: Any person who officially creates regular content for a social media
account, including but not limited to University employees, students, photographers, videographers, recording artists or other designated persons such as alumni, parents or outside vendors such as PR firms, ad agencies, influencers or freelancers. A Content Producer may or may not be an administrator or moderator.

Policy:

All Users, Moderators and Administrators participating on University-Affiliated Accounts must adhere to University policies. Some of these policies include but are not limited to the Intellectual Property Rights Policy, copyright policies, FERPA, Campus SaVE Act, Sexual Misconduct Policy and Protocol, employment policies, Student Rights & Responsibilities, Standards of Conduct, Responsible Use of Information Technology Resources, Student Organization Handbook, Student Organization Fundraising, Visual Style Guide. They must also adhere to terms and conditions as defined by the social media platform, civil law and Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR Part 255.
Student-Run Accounts are also governed by the Student Organization Handbook and the Office of Student Activities. Student-Run Accounts must adhere to the tenets of this policy that specifically mention Student-Run Accounts.
Account creation, registration and the Social Media Directory and branding
1. Before creating new University-Affiliated Accounts, Administrators must contact Marketing and Communications (MarCom).
2. All University-Affiliated Accounts must register their account URLs, Administrators, Moderators and contact information with MarCom.
  1. Only registered accounts will be hyperlinked on willamette.edu, used to populate content feeds on willamette.edu, and featured on the website’s Social Media Directory.
  2. Flagship Accounts must have one Administrator who is a member of MarCom, ideally the Director of Digital Communications or their designee.
3. University-Affiliated Accounts must adhere to the University’s official brand and visual style guidelines.
4. Student-Run Accounts must register their URLs, Administrators and Moderators with the
  Office of Student Activities according to the procedures of the Student Organization Handbook. Student-Run Accounts must adhere to the naming and branding conventions as defined in the Student Organization Handbook.
Account security and page roles
1. Each University-Affiliated Account (excluding Student-Run Accounts) must have at least three Administrators/Managers. At least two non-student employees in the department, office or group that owns the account must have access to each account’s login credentials.
2. Advertisers, service providers and analysts contracted by the University may be given access to University-Affiliated Accounts with the least amount of access necessary to perform their role. They cannot hold any role that allows them to assign or remove account Administrators.
3. Administrators of University-Affiliated and Student-Run Accounts must adhere to best practices for controlling account access and password management as defined in the University’s Information Security Policy.
  1. For platforms where one uses a personal account to administer a University Affiliated Account (such as Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube), individuals are strongly encouraged to adhere to the Information Security Policy’s password requirements on their personal accounts.
4. For Facebook Business Manager Accounts that own social media pages representing a
  University college, office, division or department, the Director of Digital
  Communications or their designee, must be an administrator on the account.
5. For platforms with a single username and password, such as Instagram and Twitter, all University-Affiliated Accounts, including Student-Run Accounts, must be registered using a ****-social@willamette.edu email address in Google Groups. Account recovery preferences must use the same email address.
6. Access to and passwords for Flagship Accounts must be shared with the Director of Digital Communications or their MarCom designee so that University access to the accounts is maintained through employment transitions.
7. Administrators of University-Affiliated Accounts are responsible for updating MarCom immediately at social-media@willamette.edu when a change in administration or moderation occurs.
  1. Student-Run Accounts are encouraged to do the same; they are required to inform the Office of Student Activities per the requirements of the Student Org Handbook.
Following and liking other accounts
1. Administrators are encouraged to follow and like other accounts, particularly those related to their department or office’s account.
2. University-Affiliated Accounts must not follow accounts that are anonymously owned including those that appear to claim affiliation with the University such as parody accounts.
  1. Student-Run Accounts are encouraged to do the same.
Public versus private accounts, pages and groups
1. In general, University-Affiliated Accounts should be public and accessible to prospective students, parents, the Salem-Keizer community and alumni.
2. Exceptions include pages or groups intended for communication within a defined subset of the Willamette community, such as those enrolled in a particular course, incoming students, parents, alumni, etc.
ADA compliance
1. Administrators and Moderators on University-Affiliated and Student-Run Accounts must produce ADA-compliant content.
2. All videos featured on University-Affiliated Accounts must be captioned.
3. Any video embedded on willamette.edu from YouTube, Vimeo or another source must be captioned.
Content creation and moderation
1. University-Affiliated Accounts are strongly encouraged to follow best practices for posting frequency on each medium. To be featured on the University’s Social Media Directory, accounts must produce regular content as defined in the procedures section of this policy.
  1. Administrators of University-Affiliated Accounts should engage their followers and provide quality customer service.
2. Willamette University supports freedom of speech and dialogue. Willamette University does not endorse all comments that appear on University-Affiliated Accounts.
  Administrators should moderate comments lightly to provide room for conversation.
3. University-Affiliated Accounts are meant to nurture the Willamette community by sharing news, resources and events related to the University. Content and comments posted on University-Affiliated and Student-Run Accounts should be in alignment with Willamette’s values.
4. The University reserves the right to delete or edit inappropriate, offensive or disparaging posts that do not align with the community’s values.
  1. Students are bound by the Student Code of Conduct and all other relevant
    University policies when participating on University-Affiliated and Student Run Accounts. ii. Employees are bound by all University policies when participating on University-Affiliated and Student-Run Accounts.
  2. Content Producers must report alleged violations of Title IX that occur on the University-Affiliated and Student-Run Accounts they manage via the Bias Incident Reporting System.
5. Content Producers on University-Affiliated Accounts must adhere to the University’s Political Policy and maintain a clear distinction between the political activities of individuals as private citizens and the activities of those individuals in their official relationship to the University.
6. University-Affiliated Accounts must not share posts or information from anonymous accounts or sources.
7. Administrators are encouraged to post user-generated content when appropriate and are responsible for obtaining permission from and acknowledging the author of the content.
  1. Content created by University employees for University-Affiliated Social media (excluding Student-Run Accounts) is owned by the University and does not require an author, photographer or videographer credit.
8. When posting on social media and the University’s website, Willamette students and employees will observe the University’s Intellectual Property Rights Policy and copyright policies.
  1. All actions taken on the University’s public website and social media are considered outside the scope of fair use. Fair use only applies to classroom usage within the walls of a classroom or behind the login of the University’s portal.
  2. Content Producers may use images, texts and recordings in a public forum if the copyright of the material has expired or is in the public domain as long as required attributions are included in the post.
9. University-Affiliated Accounts will not post material and will remove comments that include:
  1. Spam, including deliberate repetition of comments.
  2. Threats of violence.
  3. Harassment, discrimination, derogatory comments and bullying of any form including based on race, sex, age, disability, religion or lack thereof, national origin, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, or any other basis protected by local, state or federal law.
  4. Cyberstalking.
  5. Copyrighted material.
  6. For-profit promotions, business ads and commercial transactions.
  7. Misinformation and potentially libelous statements.
  8. Hazing.
  9. Alleged violations of confidentiality and privacy including FERPA-protected information.
  10. Fundraising or crowdsourcing activities that are not associated with the University or that violate the Student Organization Fundraising Policy.
  11. Engagements with prospective students or their families that disparage incoming students, their families or the University.
  12. Links leading to posts or webpages in the aforementioned categories. xiii. Anonymous comments and reviews, or those posted with fake names that fall into the aforementioned categories.
  13. Material that violates the terms of service of the corresponding social medium.
10. Emergency crises in comments and posts
  1. If someone threatens harm to anyone or themselves, account administrators must immediately call Campus Safety at 503-370-6911. Then, they should use the social medium’s reporting tools to appropriately flag the comment/post.
Membership and post moderation on University-Affiliated Groups
1. University-Affiliated Groups include both private and public Facebook groups, accounts on other social media that are viewable to members only, and messaging groups on text or message-based applications.
  1. These include Groups for students, employees, prospective students, alumni, parents and members of a class or major.
2. All Groups must define rules for membership and engagement.
3. Anonymous accounts, including those using a pseudonym, may not join University Affiliated-Groups unless they provide group Administrators with their real name or affiliation with the group.
4. Any University-Affiliated Groups moderated by employees are highly encouraged to activate post approval permissions and review all posts before publishing.
  1. Posts that violate or may violate Title IX or other laws; FERPA, or other confidential information must not be published.
  2. If post approval is not an option, then Administrators must take care to delete posts that violate this policy.
Confidentiality and consent for photo and video
1. When posting on University-Affiliated Accounts including Student-Run Accounts, Content Producers must respect Users’ personal boundaries and privacy.
2. Administrators, Moderators, Content Producers and Users of University-Affiliated and Student-Run Accounts are bound by the Responsible Use of Information Technology Resources policy.
3. Storing confidential information on social media is forbidden (Information Security Policy).
4. Administrators, Moderators and Content Producers shall protect the privacy of students’ educational records and are bound by and responsible for adhering to the University’s Student Records Policy and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA).
5. Content Producers must ask individuals’ permission before posting their information, photos and videos, unless the Content Producer is creating content that features or shares a public communication, such as a news story, press release, social media post, or photo/video already in a University database, such as PhotoShelter, Willamette Archives, YouTube, Vimeo, etc.
6. Content Producers must make a good faith effort to have this consent in written form via email or text. They are responsible for keeping this record.
7. Event organizers must notify attendees if photos, videos and other recordings of the event that might feature attendees are being made for use on social media or other public materials. Written consent is not necessary unless specifically featuring an individual or minor.
Embedding videos on willamette.edu from Big W Accounts
1. All videos produced by University employees to be embedded on willamette.edu must be hosted on either the University’s YouTube channel, Vimeo account or future application determined by MarCom and Web Development.
2. All videos produced for University-Affiliated and Student-Run Accounts must be captioned. This is the responsibility of the producer of the video.
3. Videos without closed captioning will not be embedded on the University website.
Contests, solicitations, fundraising, and crowdsourcing on social media
1. All University-Affiliated Accounts must comply with Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in
  Advertising.”
2. If providing any incentive to individuals or groups to promote the University on University-Affiliated Accounts, such as swag or a contest with a prize, all posts made by these incentivized users, a.k.a. influencers must indicate clearly that they are being provided an incentive to endorse the University.
  1. To do this, influencers must use #WillamettePartner in their post.
  2. Social Media Administrators and Moderators running the contest are responsible for informing influencers to use the hashtag.
3. All social media contests must have the goal or result of strengthening affiliation with the University and not an outside entity.
4. If University employees participate, the contest must comply with the Gifts, Awards and Prizes from University Funds Policy.
5. Only official University fundraising activities approved by the Office of Advancement and in compliance with the University’s Gift Acceptance Policy may be promoted on University-Affiliated Accounts.
  1. Student-Affiliated Accounts must adhere to the Student Organization Fundraising policy and the Student Organization Handbook.
Social Media Takeovers
1. University-Affiliated Accounts may host temporary takeovers of their accounts by students, alumni and employees to showcase user-generated content.
2. Account Administrators have the right to edit, suspend or interrupt a takeover at any time.
3. Account Administrators must take care when sharing login information with the user doing the takeover so as not to compromise the account.
Leveraging content
1. All Content Producers are encouraged to tag other University-Affiliated and Student-Run Accounts and use hashtags in posted content that is relevant to those accounts.
Social Media Advisory Committee
1. The Director of Digital Communications or their designee may chair and call to order meetings of the Social Media Advisory Committee to provide support to the University’s Content Producers with the goal of creating a social media landscape that supports the University’s mission.
2. An Administrator or Content Producer for each Flagship Account must serve on the committee.
3. Others who curate content for University-Affiliated and Student-Run Accounts may also be asked to serve on the committee.
4. The committee may serve, when needed, in an advisory capacity for updates and amendments to this policy and its corresponding procedures.
Procedures
1. The procedures regarding enforcement of this policy are included below and may be adapted and expanded in other official social media documentation and guidelines for University employees and students.
  
  Due to the constant evolution and fluid nature of social media and their interfaces, the Director of Digital Communications or their equivalent is responsible for regularly adapting the guidelines to the current social media landscape within the confines of the Social Media Policy.
  
  The Director of Digital Communications may consult the Social Media Advisory Committee regarding proposed amendments and updates to the guidelines.
  
  All updates to the guidelines must be approved by the vice president of marketing and communications, their equivalent or their designee.
2. New account creation, the Social Media Directory and branding
  1. Before creating a new University-Affiliated Account, one must first contact the Director of Digital Communications at social-media@willamette.edu to avoid the duplication of existing accounts and to discuss the naming, handle choice, and other logistics of account creation so that branding across the University is maintained.
    1. Special case: Facebook Business Manager (FBM) — do not create a FBM account without the consult and consent of the Director of Digital Communications or their designee, who must be an admin on the account to ensure that account ownership can be transferred. Students and nonemployees cannot hold ownership roles in FBM accounts that represent colleges, offices, divisions, or other University programs. Student-Run Accounts are exempt from this, but they are highly advised to not create FBM accounts, as this creates another level of complexity to transferring ownership of Facebook pages and groups.
    2. The Director of Digital Communications or their equivalent is responsible for maintaining a social media inventory of all University-Affiliated Accounts.
  2. Before creating University-Affiliated Accounts on social media with a shared login, such as Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Snapchat, including Student-Run Accounts, Administrators must create a *****-social@willamette.edu Google group with WITS via this form in the portal.
    1. All current University-Affiliated Accounts, including Student-Run Accounts, must also change their account recovery emails to a *****social@willamette.edu Google group address following the directions above.
    2. This group email address must be used as the account recovery address for all University-Affiliated Accounts.
    3. This will ensure that the University will not lose administrative access to social media accounts when students and employees leave the University.
    4. The Google group should include all owners and administrators of the affiliated social media accounts. Owners of these accounts are responsible for updating and maintaining membership of their Google group.
    5. Any exceptions to this rule must be cleared with the Director of Digital Communications or their designee. An example of an exception to this rule is Athletics, which has numerous accounts that are managed by the assistant athletics director, media.
  3. After creating a University-Affiliated Account, the account’s Owner must register their account URLs, administrators, Moderators and contact information with MarCom via social-media@willamette.edu or this form.
    1. Student-Run Accounts must register this information with the Office of Student Affairs according to the precepts of the Student Organization Handbook. Although not required, they are encouraged to register their account URLs, Administrators, Moderators and contact information with MarCom via social-media@willamette.edu or this form.
  4. Only registered accounts will be hyperlinked on willamette.edu, used to populate content feeds on willamette.edu, and featured on the website’s Social Media Directory, which is managed, by the Director of Digital Communications or their designee.
  5. v. The Social Media Directory lists links to University-Affiliated Accounts that represent an office, department, program or organization that is managed by University employees.
    1. Student-Run Accounts will not be listed with the exception of the Associated Students of Willamette University (ASWU), because ASWU officially represents the student body.
    2. Accounts managed by Willamette University Athletics are populated by the directory on wubearcats.com.
    3. Administrators are responsible for working within their offices and departments to keep the social media links in their webpages’ contact information blocks updated.
    4. If a University-Affiliated Account does not have a corresponding webpage or contact-information block on willamette.edu, account administrators should contact the Director of Digital Communications who will manually enter these social media links into the directory.
    5. Directory-featured accounts must be public. Exceptions are private groups for alumni, parents, incoming students, the entire student body of a college, and closed groups for academic departments.
    6. Directory-featured accounts must use a profile photo (avatar) approved by MarCom. Pages must also use a cover photo when supported by the social medium. The cover photo should showcase some aspect of your department, office or group. Some profile and cover photos are available for download from the website. If you have questions, email social-media@willamette.edu.
    7. Directory-featured accounts’ “About” and “Contact” information must be complete and accurate. These sections must include a website link (preferably a page hosted on willamette.edu), email address, street address and phone number.
    8. Directory-featured accounts are encouraged to publish, on average, one new post per week. Those that are inactive for more than one month (excluding winter and summer breaks) will be subject to removal from the directory. Accounts that have been removed can reapply after they establish a pattern of posting an average of once per week for two months.
    9. Pages claiming affiliation with Willamette University that are unpopulated for more than six months will be deemed a zombie page. The Director of Digital Communications and University staff most closely related to the account will make a good faith effort to recover the login information to delete or revive the account. Unrecoverable accounts will be deemed a lost cause in MarCom’s social media inventory.
3. . Account security and page roles
  1. Passwords for University-Affiliated Accounts must be:
    1. A minimum of 16 characters.
    2. Strong as determined by a commercial password strength calculator.
    3. Changed once per year with new passwords being significantly different.
    4. Changed after “takeover” days, when the password has been shared with a Non-Administrator of the account.
  2. In order to maintain University access to Flagship Accounts through employment transitions, login credentials for Flagship Accounts must be stored in a University-approved password vault (currently LastPass) and shared with the Director of Digital Communications or their MarCom designee. If Flagship Administrators do not have access to LastPass, they should contact the Director of Digital Communications who will store the passwords in their vault.
  3. Students with access to University-Affiliated Accounts’ credentials must immediately inform the account’s non-student-employee Administrator about any password or login changes.
  4. For platforms where pages are curated by Administrators who sign into the platform via personal accounts, such as Facebook,YouTube and LinkedIn:
    1. Each page must have at least three Administrators
    2. At least two Administrators must be University employees, preferably in the department or office that owns the account.
    3. The Director of Digital Communications can serve as the second employee Administrator but will not interfere with the page except by request or in case of emergency.
    4. Students and alumni may only serve as Moderators and Editors, and unless it is not possible, they should not have the ability to assign and remove other Administrators from the account.
    5. On Facebook, students and alumni can be assigned the roles of Moderator or Editor on pages and Moderator on University-Affiliated Groups.
    6. On YouTube, roles are Primary Owner, Owner and Manager. There can only be only one Primary Owner and this must be a staff or faculty member. Students and alumni can serve as Managers under the supervision of the Owners.
    7. On LinkedIn, there is only one role available on pages for Content Producers: Company Page Administrator. Each page must have at least two Administrators that are University employees. If students or alumni are going to serve as additional Page Administrators, they are forbidden from assigning or deleting other Page Administrators.
4. ADA compliance
  1. Administrators are expected to make use of the accessibility tool options available within each social medium, such alt texts for images and closed captions for videos.
  2. Best practice on social media is to embed captions into every video. Assume that they will be watched without sound. On YouTube and Facebook one can utilize the auto-captioning tools. Administrators are strongly advised to edit the automated captions for spelling errors.
  3. Content producers must use sufficient color contrast to make graphics and text accessible to those with color blindness.
5. Content and Copyright
  1. Before posting user-generated content, Administrators and Moderators are responsible for clearly communicating to the Content Creator how their content will be used and obtaining permission in writing (email or text is permissible) to post the content. The post text or tags must clearly indicate who authored the content.
  2. When directly sharing or reposting content from another social-media account, Content Producers must credit the account responsible for producing the content when the social medium does not make this explicit.
  3. While content created by University employees is owned by the University, when it is beneficial to a student worker such as for their portfolio or resume, Administrators are encouraged to credit them.
  4. Unless social media Content Producers have explicit, written permission from the copyright holder, do not use copyrighted materials of any sort on social media. Providing attribution or credit to a source is not a substitute for obtaining permission.
  5. Administrators and Moderators should use caution when directly sharing or retweeting content from another account. If an account’s name or handle is of a vulgar or offensive nature, or if their posts are generally explicit, rude or not in sync with the University’s values, do not share or acknowledge their content. This might be interpreted by Users as the University’s endorsement.
  6. Copyrighted materials can be used on social media for a limited and transformative purpose, such as commentary, criticism and parody
  7. Regarding the usage of copyrighted music in videos for social media, contact the Director of Digital Communications or MarCom for more information about the university’s current licensing agreements.
  8. When posting artistic content from Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Content Producers must adhere to the museum’s Usage Guidelines.
  9. When promoting events, content producers should not use copyrighted images on any University-Affiliated or Student-Run Accounts.
  10. If Content Producers learn that published posts include copyrighted material, they must delete the posts as soon as possible.
6. Responding to comments, questions and direct messages
  1. When responding to comments as a University-Affiliated Account, Administrators and Moderators should respond in the voice of the office, department or organization. They should keep personal opinions to their personal social media accounts.
  2. When replying to direct messages or more in-depth questions in comments, one should identify themselves and their role, so commenters know who the person behind the account is.
  3. Refer commenters with questions to the appropriate person, department or organization.
  4. Generally, University-Affiliated Accounts do not respond to anonymous comments or direct messages. If a response is deemed necessary (such as an inquiry about admissions or someone making an accusation), Moderators and Administrators should respond privately via direct message and ask for the person's name and affiliation with Willamette, so that they can be directed to someone who can assist.
  5. When possible, Administrators should use automatic replies for direct messages that include the times during which an Administrator responds to messages and the appropriate contact information for the office, department or organization owning the account.
7. Responding to emergencies, nonemergency crises and negative comments or posts
  1. Administrators should make a screenshot of the comment, post or material in question for their records and include the date and time of day of all actions taken.
  2. If assistance or follow-up support for the Administrator making the report is needed, contact the Director of Digital Communications or their designee in MarCom.
  3. Flagship Accounts may be required to share or pin a post concerning a current crisis facing the University community, such as the pandemic.
  4. If there is an accusation of sexual misconduct, Administrators should make a screenshot of the material in question and share the information with the Director of Digital Communications via social-media@willamette.edu, who will help devise a plan or response.
    1. Content Producers must report alleged violations of Title IX or other laws that occur on the University-Affiliated and Student-Run Accounts they manage via a bias report.
  5. Do not delete negative comments unless they fall into the categories defining “offensive and inappropriate comments” as defined in the policy. Here are some tips for determining whether words and phrases are profane, offensive or threatening.
    1. The standard in determining whether a word or phrase is objectionable is to ask, “What would a reader reasonably expect the term to mean?” Further, the word or phrase should be considered in context with accompanying language and artistic/academic expression.
    2. For example, the phrase, “I know where you live,” is harmless if it is a response to one person offering the other person their address so they can attend the first person’s party at their home. If, however, the phrase is used along with, “If you don’t take down the political sign in your yard, you’ll be sorry. I know where you live,” the phrase takes a darker turn.
    3. Should the latter version be removed? First, ask, “Does it fit any of the prohibited categories?” At a minimum, they arguably fall within the “threatening” or “harassing” categories. Webster’s Third Dictionary defines “threatening” as “giving signs of the approach of something evil or unpleasant.” Black’s Law Dictionary defines “harassing” as “words that cause a person alarm or substantial emotional distress and serve no legitimate purpose.” Accordingly, “I know where you live,” as uttered in the second example, fits the definition of both “threatening” and “harassing.”
8. Membership and post moderation on University-Affiliated Groups
  1. When defining the rules for membership and engagement, the rules should be easily accessible to Members in the groups “About” section and/or a pinned post.
    1. If there isn’t room to post the rule in the “About” section of a specific medium, it is acceptable to link to the rules on another site, such as a departmental or organization’s website or Facebook page’s “About” section.
    2. Administrators must be as consistent as possible when enforcing such rules.
    3. Anonymous accounts, including those using a pseudonym, must provide group Administrators with their real name or affiliation with the group before the Administrator admits them to the group. This way members of a group can be held accountable. An exception would be a group offering a service or safe space that requires anonymity.
    4. Best practice is to turn on post moderation and approval in all groups including Student-Run Groups.
    5. If a post or comment is to be deleted, Administrators should take a screenshot of the pending post, keep notes about why it is deleted, and contact the group Member who submitted it to explain why their post is not being approved or their comment deleted.
9. Confidentiality and consent for photo and video
  1. When asking for a person’s permission to be featured on University-Affiliated Accounts, Content Producers must make a good faith effort to have this consent in written form via email or text. They are welcome to use the Willamette University Photo Video Release.
  2. Regarding the University’s Student Records Policy and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), please practice the following.
    1. Directory information as defined in the Education Records Policy may be shared in social media posts except for people’s addresses and phone numbers unless absolutely necessary, such as to RSVP or request more information from the event host.
    2. When photographing or recording in a classroom or academic setting, Content Producers are required to clearly announce that they are producing information for public consumption on the University’s social media and other public communications. They must also ask for consent to share the course name in any content.
      1. It is the Content Producer’s duty to provide students the opportunity to opt out of being featured and to “shoot around” those students.
      2. Content Producers should avoid using course names in posts unless absolutely necessary. Any identifiable students in the post must have provided their consent to be identified as a member of the class at the time of the photo shoot or in a follow-up communication
    3. Any breach of confidential information must be reported immediately to WITS by calling the help desk at 503-370-6767 or emailing wits@willamette.edu.
      1. The Administrators and Moderators responsible for making a record of the breach, deleting any related post or comment immediately, and reporting the alleged violation to the Director of Digital Communications who will contact the Registrar, University Counsel, or appropriate staff member to determine any additional necessary follow-up action.
  3. Event Organizers are encouraged to post signs at main entrances notifying attendees that photos, videos and other recordings will be taken.
    1. When feasible, notice may be given through event programs, via the ticket purchasing/distribution process or verbally at the opening of an event.
    2. Language for signage, ticket purchase “Terms and Conditions” and verbal notice should include the following:
      1. Willamette University Notice of Photographic and Media Recording: This Willamette University event is being photographed, video recorded or both. By attending, you consent to this recording and authorize Willamette University and its employees and agents to use your name, photograph, voice or other likeness for purposes related to the University’s mission, including but not limited to marketing, publicity, website and other social, print, electronic and broadcast media.
    3. If there are additional notices that particular events demand, these can be printed in a second paragraph underneath the Notice of Photographic and Media Recording.
      1. For example: The following are prohibited and grounds for dismissal from this event: signage, profane gestures and language, etc.
    4. When covering University events, Content Producers must make a good faith effort to identify themselves and announce that they are recording the event.
      1. Wear an official Willamette University nametag or ID.
      2. If possible, introduce yourself to the crowd at the start of the event.
      3. If possible, personally introduce yourself to individuals after taking photos. This can be done when asking for someone’s name to put in a caption.
      4. If filming in Sparks Center, consult the Sparks Photography/Filming Policy.
10. Embedding videos on willamette.edu from University-Affiliated Accounts
  1. YouTube
    1. Videos for broad public consumption, for live broadcasts and that meet the University’s brand and style guidelines will be housed on the Willamette University YouTube channel.
    2. Colleges, departments, divisions and offices should not create their own YouTube pages, as the University’s YouTube channel is meant to reflect the diversity of the University. An exception to this is Athletics, which already has its own channel.
    3. Offices or departments producing public videos that meet these standards
      must work with the Director of Digital Communications or their designee to arrange for moderation and uploading of these videos.
    4. Playlists on the University’s YouTube channel are managed by the Director of Digital Communications or their designee and may be created for particular groups, such as WU Stream, Career Development, MBA, LAW, and the arts.
  2. Vimeo
    1. In order to be embedded or hyperlinked on the University’s website, videos that are restricted to access by link or login, that are meant only for users logged into the University’s portal, or that do not adhere to University brand and style standards will be stored on the University Vimeo account.
11. Contests, solicitations, fundraising and crowdsourcing on social media
  1. When providing any incentive to individuals or groups to promote the University on University-Affiliated Accounts, such as swag or a chance at winning a contest prize, all social posts made by these incentivized influencers must indicate clearly that they are being provided incentive to endorse the University. Otherwise, you are violating federal law as indicated in the policy.
  2. Influencers adhere to the law by using #WillamettePartner or an equivalent and obvious identifier in their posts.
  3. Social media Administrators and Moderators running the contest are responsible for informing incentivized influencers to identify as such.
  4. Prizes cannot include cash or gift cards with the exception of Bistro Bucks, which must be purchased via invoice, not P-card.
  5. Switchboard is the venue for sharing any personal crowdsourcing or fundraising.
12. Social media takeovers
  1. When hosting temporary takeovers on University-Affiliated Accounts, Administrators have the right to choose and are responsible for training those being featured in takeovers.
  2. The recovery address for every University-Affiliated Account hosting takeovers must be a ****-social@willamette.edu email address.
  3. Administrators must change passwords after every takeover by someone not involved in the management of the account.
  4. Using a different temporary password for the duration of each takeover is recommended.
13. Leveraging content using hashtags
  1. Content Producers should tag the handles of other University-Affiliated Accounts when posting material related to those accounts.
    1. Consult the Social Media Directory to find related accounts.
    2. This is especially important on Instagram Stories, as tagging allows your content to be communicated to and shared easily by administrators of other accounts.
  2. Please use these official Willamette University hashtags when posting relevant related content and when space allows:
    1. #WillametteUniversity (primary)
    2. #WillametteU (secondary, when space won’t allow the longer hashtag)
    3. #WillametteLaw
    4. #WillametteMBA
    5. #WeAreCST #IAmCST
    6. #WillametteAlum #TeamWillamette
    7. #WUBearcats
    8. #WUAdmit
    9. #WillamettePartner (for all posts by incentivized influencers)

Effective Date: 12/01/2021
Last Review Date: N/A
Next Anticipated Review: 01/01/2024
Responsible Person/Primary Contact: AVP for Admissions Marketing
Responsible University Office: Marketing & Communications