Students’ ‘Confessions’ might require penance

Sinned recently?

Well, no need for a priest; there’s Facebook.

Those with a juicy tidbit or embarrassing transgression to share can now “anonymously” confess to an online audience of more than one billion via a recently launched Facebook page, CSC Confessions.

Until Tuesday afternoon, CSC Confessions featured the college’s logo as its profile picture. Chadron State officials contacted Facebook and requested that the registered trademark be removed, Information Technology Director and Chief Information Officer Ann Burk said Wednesday. Facebook removed the logo Tuesday and a CSC Confessions page administrator then changed the profile picture to an image of the High Rise Residence Hall at about 6 p.m. Tuesday.

As of Wednesday evening, the page boasts about 560 confessions and has garnered more than 1,350 likes since its March 9 launch.

A Sunday post stated a female CSC faculty member was “a total FOX!” The poster continued “I’d take her out any day of the month. Screw the teacher-student relationship, I’d hit it. HARD.”

A Tuesday post stated “I smoked weed numerous times in the dorms… and I was never caught!” Another Tuesday confession stated “My first football camp I banged a trainer the first night that we moved into our own dorms.”

Posts made on the page may have violated a number of the college’s standards, including its code of conduct and the IT Department’s acceptable use policies. The former bans sexual harassment, while the latter prevents users of CSC resources from digitally posting “profane, vulgar or other harassing language within e-mail messages, programs, and/or files.”

“Relative to harassment, I think that should be called out,” Burk said. “That site isn’t anything that Chadron State has any control over. We haven’t made any determination as to the applicability of the [acceptable use] policy.”

Burk added “If CSC resources are being used, it would violate the [acceptable use] policy.”

Early Wednesday morning, a CSC Confessions administrator published a post announcing a change in policy. The user stated that the page would no longer publish posts with the names of CSC faculty members. By 10 a.m. Wednesday, several posts that referenced faculty member’s names had been removed.

Users submit content to the page by filling out a one-question form on online website SurveyMonkey. Page administrators then copy and paste the submissions into Facebook pages, ensuring relative submission anonymity.

Burk said CSC’s IT Department could not track IP addresses of users who submit information via SurveyMonkey or Facebook.

“It is anonymous,” she said.

In a Wednesday email, a technical escalations employee with SurveyMonkey stated that a survey’s creator could view the IP address of any responses submitted, although survey creators might not be able to identify specific devices from a single IP address.

“You can view response [sic] by IP address, but keep in mind that IP address [sic] is pretty vague and many computers on the same network may share one IP address,” the employee stated.

In another email, a product support specialist with SurveyMonkey stated Wednesday that unless a survey creator requests records be deleted, they would remain indefinitely as long as the user maintains an account.

“The information is retained for as long as the data is stored in the account–This all depends on whether you ever request to have the data deleted, otherwise it will be stored forever,” the employee stated.

Regardless of whether the posts violate any CSC policies, administrators are concerned with the impression the page makes.

“The content isn’t a good reflection of Chadron State,” Burk said. “I think individuals need to use good judgement.”

Burk said that CSC Interim Marketing Coordinator Tena Cook is making requests to Facebook to pull content down if it is in violation of policy.

Cook cancelled a 3 p.m. Wednesday interview with The Eagle about the CSC Confessions Page and instead issued a statement via email.

“As presented in the ‘About’ section of the page, ‘CSC Confessions page has no official affiliation with Chadron State College’. The site is not sanctioned or associated with Chadron State College.  The site did not ask for and we did not grant permission to use the trademarked CSC logos,” Cook stated.

In a Wednesday morning phone interview, Christine Greenhow, assistant professor of educational psychology and educational technology at Michigan State University, said students’ comfort with anonymously posting details of their private lives stems from factors such as the development of routine and perception of environment.

“In research we’ve done with young people, students see Facebook as a more hospitable environment for their thoughts,” Greenhow said. “Because it’s a part of their routine; they’re more comfortable [online] than in more formal spaces.”