The Towerlight, February 22, 2010

TEAMS TO WATCH THIS SPRING: CHECK OUT THE SPORTS PREVIEW » PAGE 9 'l 1ПШ rowsan umvERsmrs take an social men I л лп a now IT STACKS UP TO THE ЛАТШЛА1 ТНЕПП DANIEL GROSS News Editor LAUREN SLAVIN Arts Editor It's standard in most syllabi to include an addendum about student use of social media during class. Students shouldn't Tweet from their cell phones or computers, shouldn't be chatting or growing virtual crops on Facebook or showing their classmates the latest remix of the “Scarlet Takes a Tumble" video on YouTube. Now Towson University is faced with what pol¬ icies they should hold themselves to in regards to administrative use of social media Web sites. Since late August 2008, TowsonU and TowsonUNews have been Tweeting event times and locations, school closings and press releases on new University initiatives such as Recyclemania or campus growth. As of Sunday afternoon, TowsonU is following 415 students, professors, alumni and University organizations and has almost 1,000 followers. TowsonUNews has closer to 2,000 followers and is following more than 500 Twitter users. Pam Gorsuch, communications specialist for the department of administration and finance, currently runs the TowsonU Twitter account. “It’s a really accessible means of communica¬ tion and it has the ability to reach a fairly wide audience," she said. Senior economics major Sam Breschi said he feels that starting social media profiles are very important for the University to keep up with students. “It seems like today you have to. It’s a compet¬ ing University and they’re trying to draw in as much attention as they can,” Breschi said. "You have to make information more appealing to the average student or to the general masses." There are numerous studies that have been made public regarding the transition of universi¬ ties into marketing and promoting information via social networks. According to a report developed by the National Association for College Admission Counseling, more than half - 53 percent - of colleges monitor social media for "buzz" about their institution. The study also revealed that a majority of col¬ leges maintain a presence in social media, as 33 percent of colleges maintain a blog and 29 main¬ tain a presence on social networking Web sites. The purpose of this presence varies between the two Twitter accounts the University main¬ tains. Stu Zang, media relations specialist, runs the TowsonUNews Twitter account as a means of communicating with local media. He described the TowsonU Twitter as more engaged with student life, whereas the TowsonUNews Twitter is more of a means of maintaining information in a similar fashion to the Towson Web site’s Newsroom. “I noticed that an increasing number of reporters and producers are on Twitter,” Zang said. "I decided that might be a good way to find things they're looking [to report on]." Gorsuch and Zang recognize the trend of social media use by students as a means of obtaining information and they hope to both add to that information and engage in dialogue with their audience. “People 1 think gravitate towards certain tools," Zang said. “They find the tools as a way of expressing themselves; the/ re not necessarily looking at the tools themselves, but thinking how can I [use them to] accomplish a task." According to Gorsuch, there are no policies or specific guidelines that are followed when running the Twitter and Facebook accounts to communicate with students and community members. "Most organizations don’t have organized social media divisions," Zang said. “I think the beauty of social media is that it sort of comes up on its own." Gorsuch agreed that social media is still very new and more defined procedures will come as it is used more often. "I think it’s a trend that you’ll see continue to grow like Facebook and MySpace. It’ll continue to evolve and people will fine tune the way they use it,” Gorsuch said. Since 2009, universities across the coun¬ try have been working to "fine tune" their policies for social media use by faculty. Kansas State University, the University of Michigan and Rochester Institute of Technology are three insti¬ tutions with recent official social media guide¬ lines, while other institutions have had working policies about online etiquette for years. The University of Maryland, College Park has had an office of Internet communication for eight years, and a Web and new media strategies division for three, according to Linda Martin, executive director of web and new media strategies. While they are still develop¬ ing official guidelines for social media, including their Twitter account UMDNews, other divisions of their online department are regulated. UMD’s FYI calendar, which is similar to Towson’s Daily See MEDIA, page 8 В У THE numBERS @TowsonU Following: 415 Followers: 939 @TowsonUNews Following: 546 Followers: 1,703 (as of Sunday, Feb. 21) Illustration by Battsengel Lopez/ The Towerlight Ualet Parking Attendants uianted for 6 restaurants in Little Italy ** Good Pay. Good Tips. Hours are 6PM to 11PM, 7 days/week Apply in person, Monday thru Thursday. 300 South High Street, Valet Office Must be 19 or over. Must be able to drive clutch.