Comments on: Are Law Professors Allowed to Have On-Line Friends?

By: It’s kind of like how we feel when we run into professors at Ukrop’s… « Richmond Law SBA

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:50:52 +0000

[...] subject matter of this particular post, I thought it was too fascinating to pass up. She addresses the awkwardness of law faculty members running into their students in online discussion forums, and poses the following hypo (yes!): Jill is a visiting assistant professor at No-Name Law School, [...]

By: Andrew Siegel

Andrew Siegel — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:39:14 +0000

Either the facts here have been changed so much that they don’t resemble what actually happened or the Dean involved has a serious over-reaction problem. In explaining her mental state, Jill revealed the following information: (1) there was an assignment in her class due that day; (2) (at least) one student did a poor job on the assignment; and (3) she cared enough about her students’ performance to be upset about the fact that one of the assignments weren’t very good. Which part of that exactly is confidential? Or reflects badly on her? Or is even, frankly, surprising?

By: Andrew Siegel

Andrew Siegel — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 05:38:46 +0000

By: Miriam Cherry

Miriam Cherry — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:14:08 +0000

I’m with both ER and Karl on this one.

Option 5 listed is just more professional.

That being said, one would think the administration would be enlightened and understand that the student was overly involved – to go into a knitting forum is almost “cyberstalking” the professor.

Some lessons from this. For the professor – nothing you write in a public forum is a “secret,” so make sure you keep your boundaries clear. For the student – an illustration of the axiom that sometimes if you look too hard, you find things you, well, don’t want to see.

By: Janus

Janus — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:51:05 +0000

The person could have two profiles–one professional, one personal. I think Ning lets you do that.

By: anon

anon — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:33:03 +0000

So have I, Kristen, but I suspect that were we overheard by students making those comments in a restaurant, our odds of being reprimanded would be about the same if a similar comment was discovered in a knitting forum. And, at least if it’s a restaurant near the university, our odds of being overheard might even be higher in a restaurant.

By: Kristen Osenga

Kristen Osenga — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:29:40 +0000

Maybe I’m in the minority, ER – but I regularly talk to my friends and family about my work in a restaurant. I certainly don’t mention names (as my friend also did not in her posting) – but I’ve certainly said something of the ilk (in a public place) that “these exams are the worst I’ve graded”…or that “only one student wrote a decent first draft.” I don’t believe this to be improper. Does this change when you get into a public internet forum vs. a restaurant? I don’t think it’s so unlikely as you state.

By: John Armstrong

John Armstrong — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:28:49 +0000

Yes, I agree with ER for the most part. Your analogy is flawed.

Sure I could share the fact (not that I’m saying this is true) that many of my college algebra students are complete idiots who never come to class on a forum, but that’s not analogous to telling my real-world friends. That’s analogous to going to a cocktail party and telling everyone I meet, whether I know them personally or not, that same information. The situation analogous to telling my meat-friends is talking to net-friends over an instant messenger program.

By: Karl

Karl — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:52:54 +0000

Or maybe the dean could tell this overly-sensitive student to mind his own business and not to assume that the professor was discussing him. In other words, the dean should have told the student to “get over himself.” And, “Jill” should never have been the wiser, blithely going about the business of enjoying her life.

By: ER

ER — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:51:57 +0000

Option 5: Jill could post more innocuous information, or statements she would be comfortable being overheard (by several million of her closest friends) saying aloud, while saving “friend” discussions of more sensitive sorts for the personal, one-to-one messaging (available in most any on-line forum) between her and individual members of her knitting board.

In other words, it’s unlikely Jill would discuss her student, even with her friend, in a public restaurant, where any number of people could overhear. She would probably consider that unethical, given that it is possible (though still unlikely) that someone could overhear and identify the student through information even Jill thinks is innocuous. She would save that kind of discussion for a more private place, such as during their car ride to the restaurant. If she did otherwise, the dean would be entirely justified in calling her on it.

Why should her online activity be any different? Anybody – members and non-members of her knitting board alike – could see her comments in the public posting. If she sent a private message or an e-mail to a particular online friend, those comments would not be broadcast to the world.

By: anon

anon — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:45:48 +0000

I think this is not specific to being a professor – most professionals now have to weigh the odds that someone who finds their hobby inappropriate will find it on-line with their wilingness to curtail their lives. In the example above, I don’t think it’s a simple yes/no answer. I think it’s a question of – is the risk of negative career impacts worth having these friends, and the answer is probably highly individual based on the satisfactoriness of your off-line social life plus the importance of having friends who share an obscure interest.

That said, I think things can be minimized more than you think – plenty of lawyers (and other professionals) can’t say much about their worklife to real life friends either because of confidentiality requirements. It’s not a prerequisite of friendship, though it is annoying. I think it’s entirely possible to have on-line friends without saying much negative about your students.

Plus, many social circles on-line end up branching out from forums and messageboards and using systems like LiveJournal which allows you to lock certain posts to certain groups of users. This is a good option once more casual on-line friendships are established that allows you to share personal data with much lower (though not zero) risk of it being exposed.