Dive Brief:
- The popularity of Twitter and other social media platforms can pose a challenge for college professors and administrators; educators often find it useful as a way to disseminate their work, but it can reflect on the school if their research (and opinions) are controversial, The Atlantic reports.
- Sometimes academics create controversy with a potentially offensive tweet, but others argue that it there is a potential negative impact if universities attempt to limit the freedom academics have to speak online and on social media platforms, while administrations balance the needs of educators and opinions of other stakeholders.
- While some academics have managed to leverage their use of social media into greater public knowledge of their research, other professors worry about using social media, fearing that any potentially offensive speech or any other slip-up might not only reflect poorly on the professor but on their work.
Dive Insight:
Even many tenured professors seem to be hesitant to speak out too forcefully on social media platforms, but the danger is even greater for adjunct professors, as well as part-time and non-tenure track full time professors. They are the ones who do not have the protections afforded to tenured professors. If they were to post something on social media that may not reflect poorly on their character but could be considered a potentially controversial topic to address, the college may have latitude to discipline the professor they may not have with tenured staff.
A more robust union presence among adjunct, part-time, and full-time non-tenure track educators could potentially offer more protection for academics engaging in politically divisive research. Vanderbilt University is one of the more recent examples of congenital faculty attempting to unionize, and while advocates for unions often speak about more pay and better quality-of-life, the protection afforded in the event of a politically divisive tweet could be an added benefit. In the meantime, professors and educators must come to the realization that everything on social media is potentially public. In the same way educators should comport themselves as if a camera may be trained on them constantly, they should not shy away from social media, but merely consider that the post, whatever it may be, expresses their intention accurately.