Using a site like Facebook can do a college student a lot of good. It can help an individual manage dozens of friendships. It can help in the organization of meetups and events. It can even help someone better search for birthday or holiday gift options for fellow associates. Granted, one’s social circle would have to be of the stripe that enjoys blasting news of various purchases made via the now-infamous system known as Beacon. But, nevertheless, ‘tis possible to make use of the network’s various features, controversial or otherwise, to one’s benefit.
Using Facebook can also get you booted out of college.
That’s what happened to T. Hayden Barnes, who, according to a piece recently published by InsideHigherEd.com, was “administratively withdrawn” from Georgia’s Valdosta State University. A student in his sophomore year, Barnes evidently managed to upset Ronald Zaccari, the university’s president, enough last May to get shown the proverbial door. His crime: opposing Valdosta’s plan “to build two large parking garages with $30 million from students’ mandatory fees.”
Barnes didn’t have a very cordial relationship with the university before his forced departure. In the spring of 2007, he posted fliers critical of the scheduled development; sent letters to school administrators as well as the campus newspaper; and wrote mass emails to the student body. He was a busy and quite vocal chap before his expulsion, for sure.
The outstanding factor, though, for Barnes’s withdrawal was evidently a picture posted to his Facebook profile in which he portrayed a collage of images showing president Zaccari, a bulldozer aside the proposed parking garage, and the phrases “No Blood for Oil” and “S.A.V.E.-Zaccari Memorial Parking Garage.”
The story doesn’t end there. Barnes proceeded to obtain “endorsements” from both a psychiatrist and a professor and appealed the president’s decision with the help of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. But the Georgia Board of Regents, the channel through which Barnes was required to address the problem he had with college administrators, chose not to reverse the expulsion. The matter is still pending.
Now, if we are to look at this story objectively, one can perhaps see why Zaccari may have been compelled to take action in response to Barnes having posted said image. Yet, withdrawal from the university looks to have been rather excessive. The correct way to address the situation would have been to offer Barnes and any immediate family members to discuss the protestations made.