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Campus, clubs look for place on MySpace
By Brandon Daviet
bdaviet@mscd.edu

If Metro requested to be your next MySpace friend, would you add it?

Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook along with text messaging and other forms of modern communication were discussed April 19 at a Student Government Assembly forum on campus communication in the Tivoli. The event was inspired by the theories of author Andrew J. Milne, whose recent book, Entering the Interaction Age: Implementing a Future Vision for Campus Learning, explores the possibility of using social networking sites as learning tools, according to a Metro news release. In the book Milne declares that “higher education is entering a new age, an interactivity age.”

The panel included director of Student Services Larry Worster, associate director of Student Activities Brooke Dilling and Metro’s director of web communications Chris Mancuso.

“We are always interested in how to communicate with our constituents, past, present and future,” Mancuso said about the opportunity the sites offer.

The purpose of the forum was to imagine how social networking and gaming sites could be integrated into the classroom and campus experience at Metro. But the discussion also focused on using networking to promote campus events.

“We want to use social networking sites to rope people into activities that they normally wouldn’t pay attention to on a flyer,” Dilling said.

Plans were discussed that would allow academics to integrate more with networking sites, but there is a wariness about the implications of this sort of move.

“We are looking into incorporating social networking sites into classrooms and MetroConnect in the next five years,” Worster said. “But we are hesitant to create an official MySpace site for Metro State. There are many schools that have done it and it has proved to be a big source of controversy.”

One such incident involved a New York cheerleader who was expelled from her high school after sending nude pictures to a young man who then posted them on MySpace.

The panel also pointed out that while the sites are important, they can also negatively affect graduating students seeking jobs.

“Employers are checking these social networking sites and if they see a red flag, that student might not be getting a job,” Dilling said.

Metro junior Kari Larson, expressed her apprehension about emphasizing social networking as an official form of communication.

“I’m very old school … I still write checks,” Larson said. “For me as a student I’d rather see a lot more real connection than cyber connection.”

Several other students in attendance echoed her sentiments.

While the panel’s members were sympathetic to the concerns of students, they stressed that with new generations being raised with the web. Electronic communication is just another part of modern college life.

“We realize we have a big population that isn’t up on the latest and greatest technology,” Mancuso said. “On the other hand, e-mail is an official form of school communication.”

The college’s MetroConnect site, which offers a variety of electronic services, was launched in 2003 and has largely replaced the college’s paper communications.

“Budget cuts were a big part of the creation of MetroConnect because it cut out a lot of paperwork,” Mancuso said.

The forum took place just a few days after students and others around the world flocked to sites like MySpace and Facebook to express their grief and condolences over the recent tragedy at Virginia Tech.

Several newspaper articles have pointed to a lack of communication at Virginia Tech both during and leading up to the tragedy, and the panel took the opportunity to address how Metro could communicate with students through other means, such as cell phones.

“We are looking into sending out text messages in case of emergency because this isn’t the ’80s,” Mancuso said. “It’s today and we have a responsibility to do it.”

Metro students are encouraged to post their opinions on the issue at two sites the panel has set up: http://socialnetworkingandeducation.blogspot.com and http://educationalwiki.pbwiki.com.