Social media are powerful communications tools that allow Salish Kootenai College to communicate with students, employees, community members. Social media also allow the College to tell its story to stakeholders and impact the College’s reputation. The purpose of this policy is set forth the guidelines that must be followed to establish and maintain an official Salish Kootenai College Social Media Site or page or use Social Media for official college communications.

For the purpose of this policy, “social media” refers to, but is not limited to, blogs (web-based journals) and microblogs (e.g., Tumblr), collaborative websites (e.g., wikis, etc.), message boards, social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, Twitter), podcasts (multimedia distributed over the internet), video sharing (e.g., YouTube), and photo sharing (e.g., Instagram).

This policy only applies to social media accounts created to represent SKC groups, departments, programs, etc. and does not apply to private individual accounts. SKC respects the freedom of speech and First Amendment rights of the college community.  Nothing in this policy is intended to limit employees’ rights as prescribed by the National Labor Relations Act, principles of Academic Freedom, and other applicable legal rights.

1. Monitoring
   Sites created on behalf of the College or its departments are not private and may be monitored to ensure compliance with all college policies. 
   Salish Kootenai College does not pre-screen posted content, but it shall have the right to remove, in its sole discretion, any content that it considers to violate this policy. Acceptable content may be positive or negative in context to the conversation, regardless of whether it is favorable or unfavorable to the College. However, language or content that is illegal, obscene, defamatory, threatening, infringing on intellectual property rights, invasive of privacy, profane, libelous, threatening, harassing, abusive, hateful or libelous to any person or entity is unacceptable and shall be removed.
   The College may also remove social media sites that are not maintained for longer than six (6) months.
   The College does not endorse or take responsibility for content posted by third parties.
   Accounts made for a college unit must be created by an authorized representative of the College. Students may not be named as administrators. In order to comply with most platforms’ terms and conditions, and to enable the college to monitor authorized accounts and platforms, any unit wishing to create an account with a social media site will provide the Information Technology Services Department with information about such accounts, along with the contact information for the individual(s) who will be authorized to create, operate, monitor, and edit accounts on an ongoing basis.
2. The Administrator:
   1. Has approval of the department head or unit supervisor and is registered with the Information Technology Services Department.
   2. Adheres to the terms of use/service set forth by any applicable third-party Social Media Outlet.
   3. Complies with all laws, regulations and college policies, including but not limited to Federal Educational Right to Privacy Act (FERPA), harassment, privacy, confidentiality, copyright, trademark, intellectual property, data security, information technology, Anti-Harassment, Non-Discrimination, and Conflict of Interest.
   4. Uses college symbols and logos, and images of college students/employees/facilities, and follows campus content and style guidelines.
   5. Includes a disclaimer stating, “Opinions expressed on this page are those of the author, and do not reflect the opinions of Salish Kootenai College…”
   6. Follows all procedures included in the Social Media Guidelines.
3. Use of copyrighted or proprietary materials:
   Rights and permissions must be secured before posting, sharing, or distributing copyrighted materials, including but not limited to copyrighted photographs or texts, portions of copyrighted video, or information considered proprietary by a college partner, vendor, or contractor, except when such material is covered under Fair Use provisions.
   Commercial use, e.g., sales of merchandise.
   Endorsing commercial products or services is not permitted. The provision of online services or the sale of college publications or products is permitted with permission of the President.

History:

Adopted 04/15/15
Reviewed: March 2017, 9/2020, 3/2023