I’ve been waiting for this headline:
Woman denied degree over photo, sues university
A MySpace photo of a teacher education candidate, Ms. Snyder, wearing a pirate hat while drinking from a plastic "Mr. Goodbar" cup was reason enough for Millersville University (aka My'Ville) to deny her both an education degree and teaching certificate.
The dean of the School of Education accused Ms. Snyder of “promoting underage drinking.”
Of course, here in America, we like to take legal recourse whenever possible. Ms. Snyder is asking for $75,000 for her troubles.
Is it only in America where a person can be denied a university diploma for posting a picture of them selves titled “Drunken Pirate”? Think of the number of drunken teenager/college student pictures floating around cyberspace at this moment. Is it possible other institutions will deny people jobs, interviews, diplomas, bank loans, for personal pictures we post of ourselves online?
Should teacher colleges or employers regularly surf the web to make sure their candidates keep their personal life in-check in public? Is this possible or even advisable?
Which professions would this impact the most? Public servants/public professionals have known for years the importance of being earnest and tidy in public. More than one teaching career and professional life has ended due to an unfortunate public display of poor choice.
So it appears MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, Second Life no longer carry the cultural cache of a speakeasy or VIP/private lounge. What happens in MySpace no longer stays in MySpace; MySpace is now YourSpace. Or is it OurSpace, or WiiSpace, or UrSpace? The neologist in me quakes with excitement!
Related story 1 & 2.
Keywords: Bebo, censorship, employment, Facebook, identity, learning, legal issues, MySpace, privacy, safety, Second Life, social media, social software, teaching
Comments
I'm perplexed. How does a (at the time) 25 year in a pirate hat promote underage drinking anymore than a typical beer commercial on TV? Furthermore she's 25! Last time I checked that is four years beyond the legal drinking age in the United States. Seems to me like the University made a very poor decision to deny Ms. Snyder her degree.
As an Educator I think that it is important to set a good example for the students that we teach and perhaps a drunken pirate picture isn't the best choice for decorating a MySpace page. Going on the information I read from the CNN link, I think that Ms. Snyder has every right to be upset and to take legal action. My'ville should seriously reconsider their acttions.
This is a very good example of how little we know about our own identity and the different philosophical concepts of identity. What's amazing about this deficiency is our culture of celebrity. We live in an identity based culture, and we have no idea what that means. Not yet anyway.
As people freely past on their websites photos and stories any celebrity would sue to have removed, stories surface of the democratic power of the internet, but now we see power is at work in many places. Now, what is an identity, why and for what purpose is it formed?
http://kt.flexiblelearning.net.au/tkt2007/?page_id=28
Danah Boyd is always excellent on identity online.
Cheers