ADMINISTRATIVE POLICY
Policy Statement
These policies are designed to ensure that Tulane University's social media presence aligns with its values, brand, and institutional voice, while also protecting the university's community and intellectual property. They establish clear guidelines for appropriate content, interactions, and the responsible management of social media accounts affiliated with the university. By adhering to these protocols, users help maintain a professional, respectful, and legally compliant social media environment that supports Tulane's mission.
Purpose and Scope
These policies are in place to protect Tulane University's reputation and community by ensuring that all social media content complies with legal and regulatory requirements, such as Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and copyright laws. They also aim to maintain brand integrity, uphold institutional voice, and ensure that interactions on social media are respectful and aligned with university values. By following these guidelines, users help avoid legal liabilities and promote a positive, cohesive online presence for the university.
Applicability of this Policy
The Tulane University Social Media Policy applies to those managing official social media accounts, including the Office of University Communications and Marketing, faculty, staff, and departments representing Tulane professionally online. It also affects individual faculty, staff, and students in their personal use of social media when associating themselves with the university. Additionally, it governs the behavior of all users engaging with Tulane-affiliated platforms, ensuring compliance with guidelines and prohibiting inappropriate content.
Contacts
Definitions
UCM - University Communications and Marketing: This refers to the department responsible for managing Tulane’s flagship social media accounts and communications.
FERPA - Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act: A federal law that protects the privacy of student education records.
HIPAA - Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act: A federal law that protects sensitive patient health information from being disclosed without the patient’s consent or knowledge.
NCAA - National Collegiate Athletic Association: The organization that governs college athletics, including the rules that Tulane must follow regarding student-athletes.
Doxing - The act of publicly sharing private or identifying information about an individual, often with malicious intent.
Trademarks and Logos: These refer to the official symbols, names, and branding elements associated with Tulane University, which are protected by intellectual property laws.
Policy and Procedures
Tulane University Flagship Account Protocols
2.1 University flagship accounts, as outlined here, are maintained by UCM. If you have questions regarding content or policies, email socialmedia@tulane.edu.
2.2. To request that your content be shared on Tulane flagship social media channels, email socialmedia@tulane.edu
2.3. By engaging with Tulane social media channels, you are agreeing to adhere to Tulane’s policies, including, but not limited to, the Tulane Student Code of Conduct, Faculty Handbook or Staff Handbook.
2.4 Comments or posts tagging the accounts that are promotional or spam will be deleted.
2.5 Comments or posts tagging the accounts that use inappropriate language, share private or proprietary information, or harass members of the Tulane community will be deleted.
2.6 If you experience online harassment by a member of the Tulane community, file an incident report.
Departmental or Organizational Use
Follow these policies when producing social media for your department or organization:
3.1 Protect Confidential and Proprietary Information. Do not post confidential or proprietary information about Tulane, its students, employees or alumni. Follow all applicable federal requirements such as FERPA, HIPAA, as well as NCAA guidance and other rules applicable to university operations. Adhere to all applicable university privacy and confidentiality policies.
3.2 Respect Copyright and Fair Use. Be mindful of the copyright and intellectual property rights of others and of the university, including, without limitation, ensuring you have secured the necessary rights for multimedia content such as photography, music, and video.
3.3 Comply with the Trademark, Logo and Use Policy. The university's trademarks are intended to present a positive image of Tulane and may not be altered in any way. The university's trademarks cannot be used in the name or logo of a third party or in promoting services or on a product in a way that could imply an endorsement by the university. No department, unit, employee, or student of Tulane shall use or develop any variations of university marks without prior written authorization. Please see the licensing and trademarks policy for more information.
3.4 Terms of Service: Obey the Terms of Service of all social media platforms. If terms of service are violated, your account may be suspended or deleted. Read the Terms of Service agreements in full as they’re updated.
3.5 Align with the Institutional Voice. Social media posts should align with the university's institutional voice, maintaining a professional tone, while remaining distinct to their specific department. No individual unit should present its social media site as representing the university as a whole. When naming pages or accounts, selecting a profile picture or icon (which should adhere to visual brand guidelines), and choosing content to post, ensure that all elements clearly reflect your specific department and not the entire university.
3.6 Political or Product Endorsements: Tulane-affiliated accounts are prohibited from creating, sharing, or endorsing content that supports or promotes political candidates, ideologies or commercial products.
3.7 Assign Responsibility. All institutional accounts should have a designated employee registered with University Communications & Marketing as the contact regarding content creation. All designated employees should follow account security guidelines, found here. To register your account and contact, email socialmedia@tulane.edu.
3.8 Develop a Strategy. Departments should plan their social media goals in advance, determine what social media platforms they plan to use/create, who their audience is, how frequently they plan to post, and how they will create/source their content. Contact socialmedia@tulane.edu if you’d like assistance in creating a social media strategy. It is strongly recommended that this strategy be reviewed and approved by your departmental head before implementation.
3.9 Name with Clarity: When naming your accounts, use your departmental name or a shortened version of it. Do not name it in such a way that it might be confused with a general page representing the entire university, or with any other university unit.
3.10 Make Accessible: It is important that posts from Tulane University accounts are accessible to all users. Include open or closed captions on videos, use alt-text for posts with photos, and refrain from posting important information in a standalone graphic (use captions to reiterate the message in the graphic). Questions regarding accessibility requirements can be directed to Tulane’s ADA/504 Coordinator, Andrea Vassar, at avassar@tulane.edu. In addition, refer to Tulane’s Digital Accessibility Resources and the Federal Social Media Accessibility Toolkit for helpful guidance regarding social media accessibility concerns.
3.11 Stay accurate. Get the facts straight before posting them on social media. Review content for grammatical and spelling errors.
3.12 Monitor comments. Monitor comments for violations of platform or university policies. If you need a tutorial on how to monitor, hide, or when/how to delete comments, please email socialmedia@tulane.edu
3.13 Stay Active. Do not maintain dormant social media accounts bearing the university’s name. Accounts should be updated at least twice a month to be considered active. If you have created a social media account with the university name or marks that are no longer used in support of institutional priorities, you should have the account removed and alert UCM of its removal. UCM will conduct an annual audit of university accounts and may contact account owners and instruct them to decommission inactive accounts.
3.14 Social Media Groups and Pages: Tulane University does not create, monitor, or control social media groups or pages set up by community members. These groups or pages, including those on platforms like Facebook, are not affiliated with the University, and Tulane is not responsible for the content published in them. The use of Tulane logos or wordmarks on these groups or pages is prohibited. Administrators of these groups or pages are asked to include a clear statement in a prominent area of the “About” section indicating that the group or page is not affiliated with Tulane University.
For Professional Use
4.1 Doxing: Abide by Tulane’s doxing protocols.
4.2 Advocacy: Abide by Tulane’s policies regarding lobbying and other contact with government officials.
4.3 Academic Freedom: Abide by Tulane’s Academic Freedom Policies.
For Personal Use
Use the guidelines below if you’re a Tulane student or employee:
5.1 Consider your Tulane Affiliation. If you choose to identify yourself as a Tulane faculty or staff member online, you must make it clear that the views expressed are your own and not those of the institution. For example, use a disclaimer such as this: “The postings on this site are my own and do not represent Tulane’s positions, strategies or opinions.
5.2 Respect Others. Tulane University encourages freedom of expression and recognizes the value of diverse opinions. Users are free to discuss topics and disagree with one another, but please be respectful of others’ opinions. Posts that go against the Student or Faculty and Staff handbooks may result in an investigation by the Office of Student Conduct and/or the Office of Human Resources & Institutional Equity.
5.3 Protect your Identity. Do not share personal information on social media, including your home address, telephone number, or e-mail address. Ask other users to direct message you on the platform if they need to contact you privately.
5.4 Be Aware of Each Platform’s Terms of Service. You are responsible for what you post on your own site and on the sites of others. Individual users could be held liable for commentary deemed to be proprietary, copyrighted, defamatory, libelous or obscene (as legally defined). Be aware of user Terms of Service for each platform, specifically language and content that will lead to your account being suspended or deleted.
5.5 Respect Tulane’s Trademark Rights. Do not use the Tulane logos, wordmarks, or any other Tulane marks or images on your personal online sites. Do not use Tulane’s name to promote or endorse any product or services, cause or political party or candidate. Please see the licensing and trademarks policy for more information
5.6 Consider your Contact Information: Use professional contact information for accounts that represent a component of your work at Tulane. Use personal (non-Tulane) contact information for accounts that are strictly non-work related or accounts that are a blend of professional and personal information. If you're not sure, err on the side of using your personal (non-Tulane) contact information.
5.7 Make Accessible. Follow Tulane’s Accessibility Policies as outlined in 3.10.
Social Media Community Guidelines
Tulane University encourages our community to engage in thoughtful discussion on our social media accounts. In order to provide a welcoming space for these discussions, comments should be relevant and respectful.
Comments, posts, or direct messages that fall under the following categories will be deleted:
- Discusses or advocates illegal activity
- Includes off-topic subjects
- Is deemed excessive in frequency/spamming
- Contains abuse, harassment or threats
- Includes defamation, nudity, obscenity, offensive comments that target or disparage an individual or group of individuals, personal attacks, profanity, sexual or violent imagery, spam comments, or vulgarity
- Infringes on copyrights or trademarks
- Publicly shares private or identifying information about individuals
- Links to inappropriate sites
- Promotional posts advertising outside products or services
- Violates a state or federal law, social media channels' community terms of service, and/or university policies, including, but not limited to, those found in the Tulane Student Code of Conduct, Faculty Handbook or Staff Handbook.
We reserve the right to ban or block users whose comments or direct messages fall under the above categories.
Please remember that if you experience online harassment by a member of the Tulane community on our social media accounts or elsewhere online, you should file an incident report.
Consequence of Violating the Policy
Violating the policy could lead to requests from UCM to remove posted social media content and on an individual basis, could lead to disciplinary actions, including reprimands, suspension of social media privileges, or other corrective measures as deemed appropriate by university administration. In severe cases, legal consequences might arise, especially if the violation involves breaches of federal laws like FERPA, HIPAA, or intellectual property rights.
