Office of Communications
Expression of Political Opinion Policy

 

Dear Colleagues:

As the election season moves forward, it seems appropriate to remind ourselves of Skidmore's policies and operating principles related to expressions of political opinions by members of the College community (a policy initially issued back on October 17, 2008).

Skidmore employees are reminded to refrain from using College resources (including, but not limited to, their Skidmore email accounts and College-maintained email lists) if they are communicating on behalf of specific candidates or positions.  In addition, anyone choosing to speak publicly in support of a candidate or viewpoint must do so as a private citizen, not as a representative of Skidmore College.

The reason for this precaution is Skidmore's status as a non-profit organization.  The College itself is not allowed to advocate for any individual or cause, and must avoid activities that could lead to the erroneous conclusion that it is acting on the behalf of a specific candidate or position.  This does not prevent Skidmore employees from exercising their rights as citizens to work or speak on behalf of individuals, parties, or causes. But those who are active in political activities, especially those who have identified themselves as Skidmore employees, must make it clear that their views are their own, and do not represent the College.

Earlier this fall, Dean of the Faculty Muriel Poston offered this same advice in an email to faculty, which I share below with her permission:

"Faculty expression of political opinion

"As noted in our Faculty Handbook, "Skidmore College vigorously endorses the principle of academic freedom." (FHB, Part One)  The Handbook goes on to provide:

Faculty are members of the community, members of learned professions, and professional representatives of an educational institution.  When they speak as members of the community, they should be free from institutional censorship or discipline, but their special position in the community imposes obligations.  As persons of learning and as educational officers, they should remember that the public may judge their profession and the College by their utterances.  Hence they should at all times be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others, and should make every effort to indicate that they are not institutional spokespersons.  The College recognizes the right and the responsibility of faculty members to speak as members of the community on issues of public concern.  (FHB pages 101-02)

"Respecting these guidelines is important first and foremost to ensure that Skidmore remains a community that values academic freedom and free speech through the opportunity to express the broadest possible spectrum of ideas, viewpoints, and perspectives.   Exercise of discretion by faculty members in the ways referenced in the FHB  – even as you exercise your rights of academic freedom and free speech – will help to sustain these community values.

"Of particular significance is the language in the Faculty Handbook that calls upon faculty members to state clearly that they are not 'institutional spokespersons'. That caveat is important for  two other reasons:  1) to avoid jeopardizing the College's non-profit, tax-exempt status under federal law; and 2) to ensure that individual members of the faculty do not inadvertently engage in the highly regulated activity defined as 'lobbying.'

"Please remember that faculty members should not express an opinion about proposed legislation or otherwise attempt to influence state or local officials, on behalf of the College, without first seeking guidance from academic administration.   Further, I would ask that you bear in mind that extra care is called for if you choose to comment about political candidates or other matters of public concern; or if you speak with elected officials or otherwise attempt to influence the passage or defeat of legislation, rules, regulations, ordinances, or similar legal documents.   Especially in those situations, it is important to indicate clearly that you are speaking as an individual and not on behalf of the College. 

"With respect to the situations described above, please note that you always can achieve the necessary clarity by including a statement that the views you express are your own and not the views of the College.  Such a statement is especially important in those instances where you identify yourself, biographically, as a member of faculty at Skidmore College.

"Use of College facilities for political activities

"At any time, but especially during an election season, members of the College community may have questions about the use of campus facilities for political activities.  Please remember that, as described above, the College is obligated by law to refrain from supporting particular candidates or taking positions on political issues (except in the context of College-approved lobbying activity related to our educational purposes and programs). 

"As an educational institution, and in order to ensure that Skidmore maintains the impartial political posture, the College uses the following guidelines when considering requests to use campus facilities for political activities:

"Students who wish to use College facilities for political activities often approach faculty members for guidance.  You should feel free to share these guidelines and principles with students or others making such inquiries."

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Regards,
Barbara E. Beck
Associate Vice President for Finance & Administration and
Director of Human Resources

(Originally sent September 27, 2010)

Social Media Handbook
General Guidelines

What social networks should I use?

Academic departments may want to consider an official Facebook page for the ability to highlight special events, facilitate online discussions, and post videos and photos.  In addition, a Twitter account can be valuable if the department has a large number of public announcements to make each semester.  A group in LinkedIn and Skidmore Connect will allow departments to begin the process of introducing majors to networking opportunities with Skidmore alumni. 

Administrative departments may find value in a Facebook page for the same reasons as academic departments, and Twitter can be a useful medium for making public announcements of events.

Student groups will find use in Facebook and Twitter accounts, to publicize events and news.
 

Facebook LinkedIn
 Twitter
Administrative offices

Campus Venues

Special Events

Student Groups

 Academic Departments
 Administrative offices

Campus Venues

Special Events

Academic Departments

Student  Groups
Helps to manage a constant flow of news, events, photos and video Provides a way to begin the career networking process
 Helps to manage a constant flow of news and event notifications, in smaller segments

How do I know if my page/group is an "official Skidmore" entity?

Ask yourself these sorts of questions, "Is this social site being used for posting personal items, or am I posting things relating to my department/group?  Is the intent to showcase my department/group, or to highlight something in my personal life?"

If you're still not clear, you can meet with Dan Forbush to get help on deciding whether your page is "official" or "personal" in nature.

If my page/group is "official", what does that mean?

This FAQ offers extensive advice on maintaining an official Skidmore social media account here.

What if I don't want to be "official"?

Social Media Handbook

Social media are a great way to get your audience more involved in the message you are communicating, by offering a chance to support that message with "real time" interactions.  Those that we have opted to officially use at Skidmore include Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter — plus our new Skidmore Connect community for alumni (which runs on a platform called Encompass from iModules).

Human Resources has crafted an advice document to guide Skidmore employees in how to interact on social networks while representing Skidmore College, and how to be certain that when you are not representing Skidmore, you are able to make that clear in your profiles and postings.

This handbook, developed by the Office of Communications, is intended to offer you tools for creating a Skidmore-branded official social media outlet for your department, program or group.  It will also offer information about customizing privacy settings, using our Informz tools for HTML emails, and a great deal more.

If you have questions or suggestions, please don't hesitate to contact Dan Forbush, Executive Director of Communications and part-time "community manager."

Social Media Handbook
Official Social Media Accounts

If my page/group is "official", what does that mean?

Best Practices

Transparency: When posting on an official Skidmore social media account, always post as a representative of your department, be sure that the department is named, and provide contact information. 

Have a strategy:  Know what your group or department wants to use the social media outlet for, who your audience is, what you want to communicate, and on what timeline.  Know what Twitter hashtags you want to use to identify yourself, and what abbreviations you will use when necessary to conserve space. 

Avoid endorsements: Remember that your friend/like list can be construed as an endorsement by Skidmore College.  Know what types of accounts or individuals you want to friend, like or follow, and how that relates to the message you want to send to your audience, and the Skidmore College audience in general.

Decide on commenting:  Know in advance whether you will allow comments, and to what extent.  Know who will respond to comments/questions/concerns, and what the response plan is for negative commentary.  Know what should be done in the case of discriminatory/derogatory commentary (you can always partner with Communications or HR on this topic).

Respect the rules:  Various rules govern your interactions.  Copyright, FERPA, Skidmore's general code of conduct, social media site Terms of Service, these guidelines, and other rules may apply.  Know the rules of your platform.

Protect your account:  Institutional accounts are tempting targets for "phishing".  Protect your passwords and change them whenever administrators join or leave the group.

Protect your privacy: Use the privacy settings for your social media site to restrict public access to personal data, but always remember that this provides limited protection.  

Measure your results:  Who do you reach?  Who are your fans?  Who connects with your pages?  Facebook has built-in analytics for fan pages.  To track your results on other social media sites, you can use a link tracking service, such as bit.ly, which shortens your links for Twitter posting, and allows you to track clicks.  Informz mailings are tracked statistically for 30 days after mailing (request a link from your Informz coordinator.)  Use these statistics to know what audience you are reaching, what they explore in your site, and what content you could provide more or less of.

 

* Many thanks to Ball State University for inspiration on the topic of official social media accounts.

 

Creating Informz Mailings

Communications will commit resources to developing Informz transmissions for any interested campus party. We do ask that guidelines regarding deadline and smooth transfer of information be followed, to ensure efficiency and quality, minimize the potential for mistakes, and provide on-time delivery of your mailing.

We encourage Informz clients to approach the process thoughtfully, to maximize the potential of email marketing and communications.

 

1-2 months in advance of ideal delivery date
 1)  Determine your target audience(s)

2)  Determine if your target audience is already served by a regular newsletter group (consult with Informz developers), to prevent overlap and duplicate mailings

3)  Select a delivery date which does not conflict with other mailings already scheduled to your target audience (consult with Advancement calendar or Informz developers where appropriate)

4)  Communicate the requested delivery date to your department, the Informz developers, and any other applicable mailing groups (Advancement, etc.)

* Wherever possible Communications will attempt to work with you for your requested delivery date.  If you need to change that delivery date, please communicate that change as early as possible, and understand that the scheduling of other mailings or tasks might result in negotiation for a new delivery date.

1 month prior to requested delivery date
 1)  Select your template from among pre-made set, or work with Andy Camp to design one for your mailings.  This template will include the "From" and "Reply" aspects of your mailing.

2)  Generate mailing lists consisting of email address, first name and last name (as an excel file).  There are standard campus lists available in our system already, but any outside-Skidmore addresses would have to be provided by you. 
2 weeks prior to requested delivery date
 1)  Generate email copy, and have it proofed and approved internally by your department.  This should include selection and tentative placement of photos, photo credits, and web links.

2)  Agree upon a subject line for your email.

3)  Provide fully proofed copy, full-sized images (with captions and photo credits where necessary), web links, mailing list information, subject line, list of requested proofreaders for proofs, and any other helpful information to your Informz developer (Andy Camp or Jenn Crewell).  These should be sent as attachments to email, not embedded inside of the text of an email.

4)  Confirm the requested delivery date with your Informz developer.
5-8 business days before requested delivery date
 1)  Proofs will be circulated between you and your Informz developer, and any other recipients you designate.  You will be responsible for collating requesting changes and communicating them to your Informz developer for the next proof.

2)  Once a version is considered final, the mailing will be scheduled in the system, for delivery on the date requested.
1 day after the requested delivery date
 1)  Request the link to the Informz mailing results page from your Informz developer, if it hasn't already been provided.  You can use this link to track the statistics for your mailings, save them to an Excel file for later study, and learn more about how effective your mailing was.  These statistics are only available in full for 30 days, so be sure to check them within that time frame.
2 weeks prior to next requested mailing
 1)  Review the excel files of statistics from your last mailing, and work with your Informz developer to remove any recipients with repeated hard bounces, etc.  You will not need to submit an entire new email list for repeated mailings, just a list of additions and deletions.

2)  Repeat as above.


Please note:  Requests of changes to a previous step, which has already passed, may result in delays in mailing dates (example: template changes after delivery of copy). 

 

 

Social Media Handbook
Relevant Policies

Various rules and policies govern your interactions on social media sites -- these guidelines, HR advice, the Skidmore Employee Handbook, copyright laws, FERPA, and social media site Terms of Service.  

This list is not meant to be exhaustive, additional rules and/or policies may apply.  Always consult with your supervisor, the Human Resources department, or the relevant department chair.

 

Skidmore Policies and Handbooks

 

Site-Specific Information



Social Media Handbook
Relevant Policies

Various rules and policies govern your interactions on social media sites -- these guidelines, HR advice, the Skidmore Employee Handbook, copyright laws, FERPA, and social media site Terms of Service.  

This list is not meant to be exhaustive, additional rules and/or policies may apply.  Always consult with your supervisor, the Human Resources department, or the relevant department chair.

 

Skidmore Policies and Handbooks

 

Site-Specific Information



Social Media Handbook
Official Social Media Accounts

If my page/group is "official", what does that mean?

Best Practices

Transparency: When posting on an official Skidmore social media account, always post as a representative of your department, be sure that the department is named, and provide contact information. 

Have a strategy:  Know what your group or department wants to use the social media outlet for, who your audience is, what you want to communicate, and on what timeline.  Know what Twitter hashtags you want to use to identify yourself, and what abbreviations you will use when necessary to conserve space. 

Avoid endorsements: Remember that your friend/like list can be construed as an endorsement by Skidmore College.  Know what types of accounts or individuals you want to friend, like or follow, and how that relates to the message you want to send to your audience, and the Skidmore College audience in general.

Decide on commenting:  Know in advance whether you will allow comments, and to what extent.  Know who will respond to comments/questions/concerns, and what the response plan is for negative commentary.  Know what should be done in the case of discriminatory/derogatory commentary (you can always partner with Communications or HR on this topic).

Respect the rules:  Various rules govern your interactions.  Copyright, FERPA, Skidmore's general code of conduct, social media site Terms of Service, these guidelines, and other rules may apply.  Know the rules of your platform.

Protect your account:  Institutional accounts are tempting targets for "phishing".  Protect your passwords and change them whenever administrators join or leave the group.

Protect your privacy: Use the privacy settings for your social media site to restrict public access to personal data, but always remember that this provides limited protection.  

Measure your results:  Who do you reach?  Who are your fans?  Who connects with your pages?  Facebook has built-in analytics for fan pages.  To track your results on other social media sites, you can use a link tracking service, such as bit.ly, which shortens your links for Twitter posting, and allows you to track clicks.  Informz mailings are tracked statistically for 30 days after mailing (request a link from your Informz coordinator.)  Use these statistics to know what audience you are reaching, what they explore in your site, and what content you could provide more or less of.

 

* Many thanks to Ball State University for inspiration on the topic of official social media accounts.

 

Social Media Handbook
General Guidelines

What social networks should I use?

Academic departments may want to consider an official Facebook page for the ability to highlight special events, facilitate online discussions, and post videos and photos.  In addition, a Twitter account can be valuable if the department has a large number of public announcements to make each semester.  A group in LinkedIn and Skidmore Connect will allow departments to begin the process of introducing majors to networking opportunities with Skidmore alumni. 

Administrative departments may find value in a Facebook page for the same reasons as academic departments, and Twitter can be a useful medium for making public announcements of events.

Student groups will find use in Facebook and Twitter accounts, to publicize events and news.
 

Facebook LinkedIn
 Twitter
Administrative offices

Campus Venues

Special Events

Student Groups

 Academic Departments
 Administrative offices

Campus Venues

Special Events

Academic Departments

Student  Groups
Helps to manage a constant flow of news, events, photos and video Provides a way to begin the career networking process
 Helps to manage a constant flow of news and event notifications, in smaller segments

How do I know if my page/group is an "official Skidmore" entity?

Ask yourself these sorts of questions, "Is this social site being used for posting personal items, or am I posting things relating to my department/group?  Is the intent to showcase my department/group, or to highlight something in my personal life?"

If you're still not clear, you can meet with Dan Forbush to get help on deciding whether your page is "official" or "personal" in nature.

If my page/group is "official", what does that mean?

This FAQ offers extensive advice on maintaining an official Skidmore social media account here.

What if I don't want to be "official"?

Facebook Tips

Most of the social media sites offer privacy policies and settings to help protect your personal data from being exploited, but you should always remember that those controls provide limited protection.  The better you understand those controls, the better you control your privacy. 

Facebook in particular has a large number of privacy settings, which can be confusing for the average user.  They break down into some simple categories: general, friend-group based, postings on your wall from various Facebook applications, external applications, and blocking.

General Settings
 Blocking
Grouping Friends
 Phishing, Hacking and Malware
Instant Personalization
 Deleting Your Account
Facebook Ads
 Official Facebook Links
Wall Posts and Applications
 Facebook Places

General Privacy Settings

General privacy settings include your username and real name, your contact information, and other general "biographical" information.  You can choose whether to enter information in some of these fields, and in the required fields you can control (to some extent) who can see this information about you. 

To change the settings for events you choose to attend (or not attend!), look under Account > Application Settings > Events > Settings > Privacy, and then change the setting to the permissions you desire.

However, certain information is always visible to everyone and cannot be hidden.  This includes real name, profile picture, gender, and networks.  Anyone searching Facebook can learn this information about you, and if you do not exempt yourself from Google searching (see below), it can be found on Google as well.  Facebook offers this explanation of your general privacy settings.

Other links for general privacy topics:

Grouping Your Friends for Privacy

One of the best ways to control the access to what you post on Facebook is to section your Friends list off into distinct groups.  Common groups include Work, Family, Friends, and Friends of Friends.  You can then use the Facebook privacy controls to limit access to your information by group -- for example, the Work group can be prevented from reading your status updates, the Friends of Friends group can be prevented from seeing the photos you upload, and so on.  This allows you to have people from work and social contacts both on your Facebook friends list, without sharing content inappropriate to the workplace with those who might not want to see it.

As a caution, remember that mistakes can always happen, and there is rarely true privacy on the internet.  Post with caution!

Instant personalization

Facebook has partnered with some other popular social media sites to offer personalized interconnected experiences for users who visit multiple platforms, by sharing your public information with these partners.  You see this with a blue bar across the top of the site, inviting you to take advantage of the program.

You can opt out of this by visiting your Privacy Settings, the Applications and Websites section, and editing the Instant Personalization area to turn off the feature.

Facebook Ads

You may notice that Facebook offers advertisements in the right column of your Facebook page from time to time.  And you may notice that it lists which of your friends have "liked" a particular advertisement!  You can turn off these options.  

Under Account Settings, look at the tabs at the top.  Choose Facebook Ads.  At the top of the page is one toggle to allow/disallow third-party ads from using information about you in crafting advertisements.  You can choose to show that information to "no one", then save your changes. (Facebook indicates that this option is not currently in use, but it never hurts to opt out in advance!)

But don't stop there.  Scroll down to the second setting!  This controls the social ads shown by Facebook.  You can choose to show your interaction with Facebook ads to "no one", and then save your changes.

This Facebook FAQ has more information on Facebook Ads.

Wall Postings and Facebook Application Postings

Ever log on to Facebook and find your feed full of posts from various games and applications that your friends play?  You can exclude those messages without hiding the more relevant posts that your friends make directly.  Hover over the posting by the game, and you will see a "Hide" button appear to the right of the post.  Click it.  A popup appears with options for what you could hide -- choose the game, and you'll never see another post by that particular game, from any friend, in your news feed again!

You can also choose to block posts by groups to your news feed -- you may wish to be a member of a particular group or a fan of a particular page, but not want their postings to appear in your news feed.  Do the same thing, hover over the posting, and click "Hide".  Choose to hide the group or page.

You can always change those settings back -- down at the bottom of your news feed is a link to "Edit Options".

Did you know that your friends can share information about you with applications they install, whether or not you have the application installed?   This Facebook video offers tips on how to control what information is shared with applications.

Facebook Places

Introduced in August 2010, this feature allows you to tag yourself with a location in your Facebook posts.  It's similar to FourSquare and other Twitter-location applications.  However, there's a twist -- others can tag you as being at a location too, whether you're there or not!

To adjust your Places settings, click on the Account tab at the top right and click Privacy Settings. Select the little blue "customize settings" towards the bottom of the screen that appears.

Blocking People and Applications

This Facebook video has information on blocking people and applications, at the 2:20 mark.

Phishing, Hacking, and Malware

Did you get a Facebook message from a friend that said something like, "Hey, check out this video of me!"?   Chances are, that was a spam email designed to deliver malware to your account and computer.  If you don't recognize the sender, the subject line seems suspect, or there is no reason for them to send you the link... delete the message without opening it.  This video has tips on bogus Facebook messages (just after the 5:15 mark).

Never give out your Facebook password or login information.  Treat it as carefully as you would your personal email and banking accounts.

Deleting Your Facebook Account

If you decide to delete your Facebook account, the process isn't as easy as you might think.  Here's a walk-through of the steps required.

Official Facebook Links

 

Social Media Handbook

Social media are a great way to get your audience more involved in the message you are communicating, by offering a chance to support that message with "real time" interactions.  Those that we have opted to officially use at Skidmore include Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, Foursquare, Formspring, Pinterest, Google+, and Flickr — plus our Skidmore Connect community for alumni (which runs on a platform called Encompass from iModules).

Human Resources has crafted an advice document to guide Skidmore employees in how to interact on social networks while representing Skidmore College, and how to be certain that when you are not representing Skidmore, you are able to make that clear in your profiles and postings.

This handbook, developed by the Office of Communications, is intended to offer you tools for creating a Skidmore-branded official social media outlet for your department, program or group.  It will also offer information about customizing privacy settings, using our Informz tools for HTML emails, and a great deal more.

If you have questions or suggestions, please don't hesitate to contact Daniella Nordin, Online Community Manager.

Twitter Tips

Twitter feeds provide a micro-byte of information, a short teaser meant to direct your audience toward your main content site. Using short snippets of information is a great way to lure visitors to learn more about your programs.

Take the time to learn how to use Twitter!  Check out the Twitter basics FAQs offered on the Twitter site.  Pay attention to the sections on following, finding people on Twitter, @ replies, direct messages, and re-Tweeting.  There is a ton of good information in their FAQ section, which will help you make the most of your account.

It can't be said enough that Twitter content needs to be concise, relevant to your audience, and frequent. Ideas for things to post about include:

Saratoga Classic uses their Twitter account to provide real-time coverage of their competitions, tweeting the results of their shows as they happen.  This allows audiences to really connect to the event, especially if they're not able to attend every day.

Rules of Thumb

Fill out your profile, and be accurate about the information you present.  If you are an official Skidmore Twitter account, make sure to give a link to your Skidmore web site, and identify yourself clearly.  There's a bio section that you can use to offer more information.

Learn the language.  Twitter limits posts to 140 characters only, this means users have created their own lingo on the site. You can familiarize yourself with Twitter's glossary of terms, and below are a few of the most popular terms to know: 

Plan ahead, and know what kinds of content you have available to you.  Do you have activities every week that you can post about?  If not, what can you offer in between posts about your specific topic? Post relevant content often!

Follow other relevant Twitter accounts!  Search for business contacts, friends, or other interest groups.  Once you have linked to one Twitter account, check that list of followers and who they are following, to see if there are other links you can be making.  Remember though that that your friend/like list can be construed as an endorsement by Skidmore College.  Know what types of accounts or individuals you want to follow, and how that relates to the message you want to send to your audience, and the Skidmore College audience in general. Click here for a list of Skidmore College Twitter accounts.

Create interest lists!  Lists are a great way to "follow" many more Twitter accounts, without cluttering up your main Twitter feed with a lot of things you may not want to read through on a daily basis.  For example, the SkidmoreCollege Twitter account has created lists for local media, Saratoga community Twitterers, other official Skidmore Twitter accounts, alumni, and local colleges and universities, to name a few.

Link and synch your social media accounts!  It can be great to only have to post an item once, and it have fed into your various social media sites through synchronized accounts.  Some of this depends on which accounts you have, and at what levels (login/locked posts, etc) - but it can be a time-saver.  Check out our interconnection page for some ideas.

Join the conversation with hashtags, and use them consistently!  #Skidmore is the hashtag most commonly used by the Skidmore College Twitter account. Others include: #SS2S (Skidmore Student-to-Student), #SaratogaSidebar (for relevant events and information about Saratoga Springs), #MondayMemo (weekly events on campus) and #SkidmoreBound (for incoming first-year students). What search term will you choose?  Make it short, and precise - and make sure it's not already in use!  

Track your Twitter mentions! There's a Search box on your Twitter home page, and you can save a search for your chosen hashtag(s).  Check it daily, along with the link for @ replies.  This helps you keep track of how your Tweets are being used and re-Tweeted, and keeps you in communication with people who choose to mention you on Twitter.

Choose your abbreviations wisely.  Most of them are going to wind up as search terms and hashtags, either for you or someone else.  Make sure that your abbreviations are clear and meaningful, but don't have hidden meanings (such as WTF, which has an internet-meme meaning).

Avoid using "internet speak".  In personal Twitter accounts, people will use the letter "u" to substitute for the word "you", in order to save space in the limited amount of characters allowed.  Avoid these abbreviations in official Twitter accounts, it can create a very unprofessional look.

Shorten your links with bit.ly.  Twitter only gives you 140 characters, and that includes hashtags.  Use bit.ly to shorten any web links you want to add to your tweet.  bit.ly has the advantage that you can track some statistics from your links, if you sign up for an account.  There are other link-shortening services, such as TinyUrl, which don't have the tracking feature, but don't require an account.

Measure your results.  Who do you reach?  Who are your fans?  Who connects with your pages?  Use bit.ly to keep track of the analytics for your links, and monitor the "followers" list for your account.  How does it change from week to week?  Consider following those people in return, if it's appropriate.

 


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