John CummingsAssistant Director, Enterprise ApplicationsInformation Technology, Marshall University11/10/2011

C Y B E R - B U L LY I N G : H A R A S S M E N T A N D V E R B A L A S S A U LT O N C A M P U S I N T H E A G E O F S O C I A L M E D I A

Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and others account for 1 of every 6 minutes spent online. The largest of the top social networking sites, Facebook, has over 640 million active users as of June 2011, half of which log on every day.

With this kind of tremendous adoption and daily usage, colleges and universities have expanded their marketing and communication efforts in to these areas. Official and unofficial social networking accounts representing these institutions are used for gathering and sharing information, showcasing faculty and student work, connecting with friends and alumni, recruiting, and even just-in-time communications like emergency notification to student populations.

While these tools bring with them tremendous opportunity and communicative power, their expanded use has presented new challenges for administrations and policy makers on campus as they struggle to find ways to combat the expansion of online harassment, verbal abuse and cyber-bullying.

DEFINITION OF CYBERBULLYING

Cyberbullying: Cyber bullying is bullying through email, instant messaging (IMing), chat room exchanges, Web site posts, or digital messages or images send to a cellular phone or personal digital assistant (PDA) (Kowalski et al. 2008). Cyber bullying, like traditional bullying, involves an imbalance of power, aggression, and a negative action that is often repeated.

Cyberbullying brings with it some new characteristics that can make the abuses more difficult to deal with both for the victim, and for those trying to adapt existing policy to this new threat. Some things to consider that are unique with respect to cyberbullying: The aggressor can often be anonymous - anonymity provided by the social network or other electronic medium being used to harass; Often because the aggressor understands or expects anonymity, there is a sense of disinhibition that can make the attacks more vicious or hurtful than might be expected in a face-to-face confrontation; Additionally, the aforementioned anonymity can make it easier for the aggressor to deny involvement when confronted with the bullying behavior. This deniability offers a sense of protection from responsibility that can lead to confrontation that might be avoided if fear of responsibility for action was present.

EXAMPLES ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES

Perhaps the most well known, and tragic, example of cyberbullying on a college campus came in September of 2010 when Rutger's University freshman Tyler Clementi committed suicide by

jumping from the George Washing Bridge after his roommate allegedly used a webcam to spy on him having kissing another man in their dorm room.

Clementi’s roommate at the time, Dharun Ravi, was ultimately charged with a hate crime and his case is still pending trial.

As a result of the media attention focused on the Clementi incident, many university campuses have introduced either new policy around cyberbullying, or else they’ve updated and adapted existing policy to deal with this relatively new problem.

In addition to institutional policy and procedure documents, many states have enacted new laws to deal specifically with electronic harassment or abuse. The US Department of Education in 2010 held its first even bullying “summit”. While the 2010 summit didn’t specifically call out cyberbullying, officials expressed an expectation that their would be guidelines around dealing with cyberbullying issued in the near future.

Syracuse University - The Student Association, Residence Hall Association, Pride Union, and Panhellenic Council at Syracuse joined recently to recognize cyberbullying as a problem on the Syracuse campus.

Sam Worrilow, President of the Syracuse Panhellenic Council: “We recognized that there was a need that the student handbook had no mention of cyber- bullying in terms of it’s a form of harassment. We recognized that as a need and passed a resolution to get the ball rolling in making those changes.”

The University established a cyberbullying prevention committee, dedicated to working with the University administration to update student codes of conduct to specifically address these new challenges.

Kent State University, Seton Hall University, and Cheyney University - All of these universities have recently taken steps to update student handbooks and policies to specifically address 21st century challenges like cyberstalking, cyberbullying, and the use of social media in abusive behavior between students. In addition to policy updates, these schools have published tips and guidelines for appropriate use of social media among their student populations.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE MARSHALL UNIVERSITY CAMPUS

The first step in preventing problems stemming from cyberstalking, cyberbullying or inappropriate use of social media among the student population is an understanding from the student body and administration of the threat, and a commitment across that spectrum to develop policy and procedure to deal with problems when they occur. Adapting existing policy or procedures wherever possible to speak specifically to the challenges of cyberbullying, and educating the student population on the threat is an imperative and responsible step.

Reviewing what other universities have learned from their attempts to adapt to these new challenges, some clear steps can be established.

1. Educate students, faculty, staff and administration on the history of cyberbullying, and the challenges in dealing with this threat.

2. Engage student leaders and student-led groups to get commitment to establishing guidelines for dealing with instances of cyberbullying on the Marshall University campus.

3. Conduct a review of existing student policies and procedures, determining where they can be adapted to include reference to these new challenges.

4. Review the social media/social networking specific policies and procedures enacted on other campuses to determine what is applicable to our campus population, and where gaps exist in our policy and procedures.

5. Develop any additional policies and procedures in conjunction with the student, faculty and staff population, and make the final publication of these policies and procedures easily accessible at any time so that those affected by cyberbullying or cyberstalking know where to go for assistance in the event of a problem.

6. Continue an open forum on policy and procedure updates to deal rapidly with new challenges as technologies and challenges continue to adapt.

HELPFUL REFERENCES

Kean University - Policy on Harassment, Intimidation and BullyingRhode Island act prevents cyber-bullyingBullying in the 21st CenturySchools Tackle Legal Twists and Turns of CyberbullyingFifteen University Social Media PoliciesBullying Takes a New FormNew York Times: Cyberbullying Goes To CollegeRutgers University - Student Policy Against Verbal AssaultSenator dicusses anti-cyber-bullying legislationThames Valley Police use Facebook to catch cyberbulliesThe Need for Student Social Media PoliciesGuidelines on Social NetworkingUniversity Speech Codes Reborn as Anti-Bullying Rules?Millersville University: CyberbullyingUniversity of Oxford: Policy on Harassment and Bullying