University discipline and Facebook

Facebook has become the new email.  Not quite everybody has it, but we all know what it is and we feel like we should have it. For the first time in human history, we can create real communities that bear no relation to location, yet operate in real time. If you fail to adapt, then you will fall behind.

At Ryerson University in Toronto, a student is currently being disciplined for creating a Facebook study group.  Apparently, his misconduct was to create a Facebook group that allowed his classmates to share information on homework that was worth up to 10% of the course. (Read it here.)

This raises a number of legal issues. Is the Facebook group any different than in-person study groups? Would the university punish smaller study groups in a similar manner if it were as easy to find them? Would it be relevant if the group was a secret group? Can you hold the administrator of the Facebook group responsible, when over 140 students were using the group? Did any member of the University administration, or a teaching assistant, know the group existed?

The matter is still part of the internal disciplinary process in Ryerson. Even if Ryerson ultimately punishes their student, other universities can make completely different decisions. Universities each have the right to form their own disciplinary policies. For example, the University of Western Ontario has already started official Facebook study groups for larger classes. (Read it here.)

If the Ryerson student is unhappy with the end result, he can try to appeal to the courts.  However, he can only appeal the process itself.  Did he break a rule that was known or knowable to him? Did he and Ryerson follow the official disciplinary process? Did he see the entire process through to the end before appealing to the courts? However, this appeal to the courts is not often successful.  There is even a good argument that the courts have no jurisdiction to review internal disciplinary proceedings in the first place.

In that case, perhaps the student would want to sue the University for breach of contract.  Presumably he paid his tuition and has decent marks.  If the University expels him, he could argue that they had no right under their contract for an education. If successful, the student's damages might include his costs of education up to this point, time lost studying for a degree that would be denied him for indefensible reasons, perhaps even lost opportunity if he turned down other universities when he began his studies.

Students need to be careful to comply with disciplinary policies while using Facebook.  We are now growing up with this powerful technology and it is starting to become second habit to treat Facebook like a private conversation among many people. However, we need to remember that we should never put anything in writing - even online - unless we are prepared to see it in the newspaper the next day.

In turn, Universities need to recognize this new reality and adapt their policies to allow for the new technologies.  Some will choose to allow more information sharing.  Others will specify in their rules what can and cannot be done online. Whatever direction the universities take, they are quickly being pulled into the new legal world of the Internet by their tech savvy students.