Policy

Ramapo College of New Jersey establishes and maintains official institutional social media accounts to promote the College and approves official College-Affiliated social media accounts for College units, clubs, and organizations. All members of the Ramapo community must utilize social media in accordance with the Social Media Guidelines, Student Code of Conduct and/or the Code of Professional Responsibility depending on their role, and other relevant institutional policies.

Reason for Policy

The Social Media Policy sets forth policy and procedures regarding the management, coordination, discontinuation, suspension, and approval of official social media accounts, affiliated social media accounts, and, where applicable, personal use social media accounts.

To Whom Does The Policy Apply

All Ramapo College faculty, staff and students.

Resources

• Procedure 609: Social Media
• Social Media Guidelines
• Social Media Directory
• Student Handbook: Student Code of Conduct
• Code of Professional Responsibility
• Broadcast Email and Voicemail Policy
• Responsible Use of Electronic Communications Policy
• Design Standards

Contacts

Office of Communications & Public Relations

Procedure 609: Social Media

December 2, 2014; Revised October 11, 2023

I. Ramapo College Social Media Accounts
The College’s Social Media Directory maintains a listing of the College’s official social media accounts and its affiliated social media accounts.

Account Types
1. Official College Social Media Accounts
Official College social media accounts are managed by the Office of Communications and Public Relations (hereafter “OCPR”) and, as such, OCPR handles all communications for these official social media accounts in accordance with the College’s Social Media Guidelines, policies, and procedures.

2. Affiliated College Social Media Accounts
Affiliated college social media accounts are approved by OCPR but are managed by designated account administrators in accordance with the College’s Social Media Guidelines, policies and procedures, and, as such, OCPR may assist the affiliated account administrator(s) as needed to provide responses to inquiries, requests, comments, or other forms of communication directed towards such accounts.

3. Individual Personal User Social Media Accounts
All community members who maintain a personal social media presence that are not official or affiliated College social media accounts are encouraged to share content from the College’s official and affiliated accounts, to follow the College’s Social Media Guidelines, the Code of Conduct outlined in the Student Handbook and/or the Code of Professional Responsibility, and other relevant institutional policies and procedures.

Community members are not permitted to utilize the official Ramapo College logo(s) for their personal account(s). Community members deemed to have inappropriate uses of an official logo of the College will be required to remove the logo.

II. Official Statements/Press & Media Relations
The College Spokesperson and/or their designee and OCPR handle all public and press communications and are also responsible for the dissemination of official statements from the College. OCPR is responsible for stewarding media relations on behalf of the College; all outreach to the media and inquiries received from the media must be managed in collaboration with OCPR.

When directed, affiliated social media account administrators shall refer to the College’s official statements to address inquiries of a substantive or sensitive nature.

Community members shall not represent themselves as official College spokespeople or as representing the College on their personal social media accounts.

Please refer to the Broadcast Email and Voicemail Policy, Responsible Use of Electronic Communications Policy, and the Social Media Guidelines for further related details (see links above).

III. Recognizing Affiliated Ramapo College Social Media Accounts
In addition to the official Ramapo College social media accounts, College offices/units/clubs and organizations may choose to have their own social media accounts. These affiliated accounts must be managed or supervised by Ramapo College employees (faculty, staff, administration). Employees who serve as account administrators and manage approved affiliated accounts are required to receive initial training followed by annual training from OCPR.

To be recognized as an affiliated social media account, the user must submit an application via ramapo.edu/social-media. This includes the establishment of new accounts related to the College in an official or affiliated manner. Approved accounts will be listed on the College’s Social Media Directory on either the Official tab or the Affiliated tab. Approved users must abide by the Social Media Guidelines as outlined by OCPR.

Use of the official Ramapo College logo on a College-affiliated account is governed by the Logos and Identity Basics as outlined in the College’s Official Design Standards rules. Users deemed to have inappropriate uses of an official logo of the College will be required to immediately remove the logo. Questions about logo standards should be directed to the Office of Marketing & Branding.

IV. Requirements for Affiliated Social Media Accounts
As representatives of Ramapo College and stewards of the College’s reputation, all affiliated social media accounts must abide by the Social Media Guidelines and the following requirements in order to be recognized as compliant accounts:

1. Generic email accounts. Affiliated accounts (such as Instagram and Twitter) must be set up using a generic Ramapo College email address that belongs to the department, unit, club, or organization (i.e. clubname@ramapo.edu). This generic email requirement means that a personal ramapo.edu email or non-Ramapo email address cannot be used. Accounts that use personal profiles to switch into managing the account (such as Facebook) do not fall under this email requirement.

Access to the generic @Ramapo email account can be authorized to a “delegate” by the account administrator(s). Delegates are granted access to review, read and send emails from the generic @Ramapo.edu email account but they cannot change the email account password or other settings. This can assist in mitigating potential “lost password” situations.

2. Account login information. Affiliated account login information (account administrators and their email addresses, account profile name, account password) must be shared with OCPR.

If the affiliated account administrator on file changes, that department, club, organization, or academic program must inform the OCPR through email (socialmedia@ramapo.edu) or by resubmitting the Social Media Application form. Whenever the login information is updated, OCPR must be apprised and the new login information must be shared.
Account login information must be available to pass along within the unit when account administrators leave or change job roles.

3. Affiliated account review and approval. Any account that is requested on behalf of a department, club, organization, or academic program must be submitted for review and approval as a College-affiliated account and, upon approval, may then be listed on the College’s Social Media Directory.

4. Non-compliant accounts. If accounts go inactive or do not follow these requirements, the College’s Social Media Guidelines, training, or related policies and procedures, OCPR reserves the right to request that the accounts in question be shut down, suspended, or that they change administrators. These accounts will be deemed non-compliant, may be removed from the College’s Social Media Directory, and may lose their status as recognized college-affiliated accounts. In addition, the administrator(s) of the account may be referred to their supervisor, People Operations and Employee Resources Department; Equity, Diversity, Inclusion & Compliance; or the Office of Legal Counsel depending on the conduct and/or content in question. Referral to one of these parties may result in further investigation and disciplinary action.

5. Affiliated accounts return to compliance. Pursuant to section IV.4, if any of these above referenced requirements are not followed, an account will be deemed non-compliant and a recommendation to suspend, change administrators, or shut down the account may be made by OCPR. Supervisors of non-compliant accounts who wish to regain their account’s affiliated status may appeal to OCPR. When applicable, OCPR may require the supervisor and administrator(s) of non-compliant accounts to undergo training and take other actions towards compliance prior to making a final determination on the account’s return to affiliated status.

6. Training and development. Account administrators are required to receive training and information related to industry social media standards, best practices, policy or procedural changes, and brand/design standards as needed or determined by OCPR.