Policy

The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse uses social media as a tool to share information about the university, connect with prospective students, current students, employees, parents, alumni and other community supporters. We also see it as a valuable venue to support the university’s mission.

Guidelines for university sponsored social media:

UWL social media accounts (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) are managed by University Marketing & Communications at UW-La Crosse. Specific UWL office, department and organization accounts are maintained by faculty, staff and students on a volunteer basis. Links to content or other Internet sites should not be construed as an endorsement of the organizations, entities, views or content contained therein. UW-La Crosse is not responsible for the content of external websites.

UWL does not regularly moderate content posted to its social media sites, however we reserve the right to remove content for any reason, including but not limited to, content that is threatening, intimidating, harassment, derogatory, malicious, hateful, obscene, profane, depicts graphic violence, off-topic, solicits, spams, or illegal.

At any time, we may block offenders from accessing our page without notice.

Users are fully responsible for any content they share on any UWL social media site. By submitting content on those social media sites, users agree to allow UWL to use the information for internal and external promotional purposes. Users who do not wish to have information they have made available via these sites used, published, copied and/or reprinted, should not post on the social media sites.

Please ensure that any content you post in this community complies with the university’s Code of Conduct and the Terms of Service and other applicable policies from the social media platform.

Thank you for your cooperation and support.

Social media expectations for employees:

It’s appropriate to be active on social media at work if your comments are directly related to accomplishing work goals, such as seeking sources for information or working with others to resolve a problem. You should participate in personal social media conversations on your own time.

When you might be perceived online as an agent/expert of UW-La Crosse, you need to make sure it is clear to the audience that you are not representing the position of UW-La Crosse or UW-La Crosse policy.

*These guidelines has been adapted from the UW-Madison Social Media Statement and UW-Madison Policies & Guidelines

UW-La Crosse believes that promoting and celebrating diversity is not only the right thing to do, but a key factor in the continued success of our university. Racism, discrimination and other forms of hate have no place on our campus or in our community. We are committed to building and maintaining a community where all people feel safe, welcome and valued. With this in mind, UWL’s Bias Response Team is compelled to review and respond to cases in which members of our university (faculty, staff and students) use offensive speech or behavior, including on personal social media.

We strongly encourage people who have experienced or witnessed hateful behavior on social media to document the incident and report it using the Hate/Bias Incident Report form.

The Hate Response Team documents and tracks incidents of offensive speech and behavior so we can respond on a case-by-case basis. Responses include but are not limited to:

• Assisting the victim/target in receiving the appropriate services (if requested)
• Developing programming and training opportunities to address intolerance
• Detecting emerging patterns of hateful or biased activity
• Publishing aggregated data about incident rates and trends
• Making recommendations to campus leadership for the prevention of future hate/bias incidents.

While we hope all former UWL students and employees conduct themselves appropriately in person and online, it is important to note that these individuals do not fall within the university’s purview. If people experience or witness hateful behavior by a former student or employee on social media, we encourage them to report the incident to the appropriate platform.

We deeply appreciate your help as we work to create safety, display empathy, and explore and communicate the next steps to move our campus community forward. For additional information about UWL Hate/Bias Response, please visit: .

Additionally, if an employee or student's behavior on social media is interfering with a person's ability to do their job or complete their coursework, that person should contact Human Resources (if the issue concerns an employee) or Student Life (if the issue concerns a student). The UWL-Online-Support-and-Resources.pdf outlines recommendations and campus roles in protecting employees when experiencing online hate, trolling or harassment.

If you are in a position to play a supporting role, keep in mind that targets of hate typically have three essential and immediate needs: the need to feel safe, the need to be heard, and the need to know what happens next.