So, last week our Vice President of Public Relations decided to ban Facebook on our campus. I work at a tribal university. We have about 1200 students, 250 staff and faculty and maybe 50 part-time employees. Most of the staff and faculty have a computer in their office that they use on a daily basis. Students have access to about sixty computers via computer labs and the library. Additionally, free wifi throughout our two main campuses.
So, apparently one employee got drunk and posted a threat to another employee via Facebook a couple weeks ago. He wasn't even at work when he posted the threat. It wasn't even working hours! The answer to this problem, according to our VP of PR, was to ban Facebook altogether. Trying to log into Facebook via phone or my Kindle Fire or my office computer will get a "no network access" message or a "SonicWall Blocked" message.
I use Facebook to keep in touch with my students. Often students don't have a computer at home because they can't afford one and they can't afford to pay for broadband. Very often my students live in areas too rural to be served by broadband, though there are cell towers throughout pretty much the whole reservation. This is something you've probably never heard of, but many people on the reservation get free cell phones. It's part of President Clinton's access to the digital divide initiative from way back, and what resulted is that our tribal council negotiated with AllTell (now AT&T) to provide (nearly) free cell phones and service to tribal members on our reservation (which has spawned the term "commod phone" because Indians who are extremely poor also receive government commodities).
With the advent of free cell phone service, many people don't have regular phones through the local phone company. They just use their cell phones.So, anyway, my students who can get a free cell phone can then agree to pay something like $5 a month for a data plan and long distance service on their cell phones, which gives them access to Facebook. Hence, why so many Indians on our reservation are into FB in a big way. It's addictive, it's nearly free, etc. I'd guess that about 50% of our local tribal members use Facebook, which is a huge percentage considering 50% of our population is under the age of 18.
So, anyway, I and many of my colleagues who teach here use Facebook to keep in touch with our students. Students who have free phones generally pay for calling minutes, but they only pay the $5 for a data plan for the month. So, rather than call them they would rather we contact them on Facebook because it doesn't use up their calling minutes. Make sense? Anyway, now the VP of PR has banned Facebook use on our campus and across our wifi networks. So, no way to contact students without using up their calling minutes.
I don't use Facebook a lot. I don't like Facebook that much, seriously. I check it maybe once or twice a day. I might post a status update once a week, if that, but due to some fighting between some of my family members I tend to stay off FB as much as possible and have any messages forwarded to my email. However, due to the completely retarded reaction the VP had to one employee issuing a threat to another employee via Facebook, I'm suddenly finding myself tilting at windmills here. When the email went out last Thursday that FB was blocked on our campus, I questioned why via email (that went out to our entire email list). Then I got a reply in private from the VP that someone had threatened someone but she made it sound like many people were posting threats. I found out later it was just one person, and he was drunk). So, then a few others chimed in saying they use Facebook to DO THEIR JOBS. Then I replied again that it was paternalistic and wrong to take away Facebook and that our students used it as a forum, they finally had a public voice, etc. Then I got a very forceful reply that Facebook is Banned, end of discussion! (Like I was a fucking child for persisting).
A lot of other employees and faculty are upset about this also, but only a few have spoken up about it because they are afraid for their jobs. I should be more afraid for my job, but I'm so angry about this that I can barely think straight.
It's not even the issue of being able to contact students, that's really just one of the functions of Facebook. The issue is the banning of a useful tool for our whole campus. The issue beyond that is that one person who doesn't understand or use technology much at all (she's seriously a luddite) can just make this blanket decision to prohibit the freedoms of our people (and yes, I consider it a race issue as the person making this decision is white and most of the population of our campus is Native American). It's paternalistic and wrong. i don't care if students were using Facebook or not. I care that this person has basically passed the Patriot Act on our campus because one "terrorist" was drunk posting threats on FB when they weren't even clocked in at work!
So, apparently one employee got drunk and posted a threat to another employee via Facebook a couple weeks ago. He wasn't even at work when he posted the threat. It wasn't even working hours! The answer to this problem, according to our VP of PR, was to ban Facebook altogether. Trying to log into Facebook via phone or my Kindle Fire or my office computer will get a "no network access" message or a "SonicWall Blocked" message.
I use Facebook to keep in touch with my students. Often students don't have a computer at home because they can't afford one and they can't afford to pay for broadband. Very often my students live in areas too rural to be served by broadband, though there are cell towers throughout pretty much the whole reservation. This is something you've probably never heard of, but many people on the reservation get free cell phones. It's part of President Clinton's access to the digital divide initiative from way back, and what resulted is that our tribal council negotiated with AllTell (now AT&T) to provide (nearly) free cell phones and service to tribal members on our reservation (which has spawned the term "commod phone" because Indians who are extremely poor also receive government commodities).
With the advent of free cell phone service, many people don't have regular phones through the local phone company. They just use their cell phones.So, anyway, my students who can get a free cell phone can then agree to pay something like $5 a month for a data plan and long distance service on their cell phones, which gives them access to Facebook. Hence, why so many Indians on our reservation are into FB in a big way. It's addictive, it's nearly free, etc. I'd guess that about 50% of our local tribal members use Facebook, which is a huge percentage considering 50% of our population is under the age of 18.
So, anyway, I and many of my colleagues who teach here use Facebook to keep in touch with our students. Students who have free phones generally pay for calling minutes, but they only pay the $5 for a data plan for the month. So, rather than call them they would rather we contact them on Facebook because it doesn't use up their calling minutes. Make sense? Anyway, now the VP of PR has banned Facebook use on our campus and across our wifi networks. So, no way to contact students without using up their calling minutes.
I don't use Facebook a lot. I don't like Facebook that much, seriously. I check it maybe once or twice a day. I might post a status update once a week, if that, but due to some fighting between some of my family members I tend to stay off FB as much as possible and have any messages forwarded to my email. However, due to the completely retarded reaction the VP had to one employee issuing a threat to another employee via Facebook, I'm suddenly finding myself tilting at windmills here. When the email went out last Thursday that FB was blocked on our campus, I questioned why via email (that went out to our entire email list). Then I got a reply in private from the VP that someone had threatened someone but she made it sound like many people were posting threats. I found out later it was just one person, and he was drunk). So, then a few others chimed in saying they use Facebook to DO THEIR JOBS. Then I replied again that it was paternalistic and wrong to take away Facebook and that our students used it as a forum, they finally had a public voice, etc. Then I got a very forceful reply that Facebook is Banned, end of discussion! (Like I was a fucking child for persisting).
A lot of other employees and faculty are upset about this also, but only a few have spoken up about it because they are afraid for their jobs. I should be more afraid for my job, but I'm so angry about this that I can barely think straight.
It's not even the issue of being able to contact students, that's really just one of the functions of Facebook. The issue is the banning of a useful tool for our whole campus. The issue beyond that is that one person who doesn't understand or use technology much at all (she's seriously a luddite) can just make this blanket decision to prohibit the freedoms of our people (and yes, I consider it a race issue as the person making this decision is white and most of the population of our campus is Native American). It's paternalistic and wrong. i don't care if students were using Facebook or not. I care that this person has basically passed the Patriot Act on our campus because one "terrorist" was drunk posting threats on FB when they weren't even clocked in at work!
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