Editorial:

The Stylus strongly encourages Park University officials not to create a social media policy in the future or use existing policies to censure free speech on social media sites by its students.

According to Social Media Manager John Roushkolb, Park University does not have an official social media policy but some standards of online behavior are insinuated in and could be enforced from other policies such as the Student Handbook, Student Conduct Code and Information Technology Acceptable Uses documents.

Roushkolb said despite a formal social media policy, Park University officials monitor posts by students on social media through a filtering program, which reports twice daily to university officials on key words mentioned online.

Complaints and misuse of Park branding elements are a common “concern,” he said. In cases where a concern may be more serious, the office will notify officials, who will then enforce repercussions if necessary.

Officials should be mindful that opening the door towards the suppression of any form of free speech by students goes against the heart of a university’s purpose. Park University is and should continue to be a place that fosters growth through political, international and civic engagement – no matter if the statement is positive or negative toward the institution.

However, The Stylus implores students to be careful and thoughtful with their online behavior. Keeping such a suppressive policy at bay will be difficult when some students’ behavior is indefensible.

Some Park students have been actively participating in social media discussions and pages, which represent our student body and community poorly.

The Stylus strongly encourages Park University students to exercise their First Amendment right in more intellectual ways and we also ask the student body to self-govern. Many people fought and died in our country to have the right of free speech and we shouldn’t squander or disrespect it by gossiping about faculty, staff or each other.

The Stylus staff must adhere to a high standard of behavior of what we print and post online as representatives of Park University student media. Every word we print or post is scrutinized and discussed. If we make a mistake, we pay for it. As Americans, we have the right say whatever we like in general, however, that doesn’t mean we always should.

The Stylus requests that our citizen journalists – our student allies – hold yourselves to the same standards. If we do this as students, this could prevent such a policy being created to control student behavior on social media – which could inadvertently suppress free speech for all students and student media for generations to come.