Social Media Policy

ArtCenter has established these standards and rules that must be followed by anyone posting, approving, or otherwise engaging in social media on behalf of the College or on ArtCenter’s social media accounts. This policy applies to all ArtCenter department, office, and institutional social media accounts (i.e., College-sponsored accounts). These accounts must be in compliance with all applicable laws, such as those pertaining to defamation, privacy, and intellectual property. Individual students and employees may be held personally liable for offending content. Remember when you are posting on an ArtCenter social media account, that you are speaking on behalf of and representing the institution, not yourself.

Primary institutional accounts managed by the Marketing and Communications department (“Marcom:) are as follows:

Instagram: @artcenteredu and @artcenterlife
Facebook
Twitter
TikTok
LinkedIn

Do not post threats or hate, racist, or harassing speech.

• Do not post hate speech, threats of violence, or racial epithets.
• Do not use social media platforms to harass or demean others.
• Do not use social media to post or display comments that are vulgar, obscene, threatening, intimidating, untrue, or that violate the College’s policies against discrimination, harassment, or hostility on account of age, race, religion, sex, ethnicity, nationality, disability, or other protected class, status, or characteristic.
• Do not post any information or conduct any online activity that may violate local, state, or federal law. Any conduct that is impermissible under the law if expressed in any other form or forum is impermissible if expressed through social media.
• In any use of social media on behalf of ArtCenter, employees—including faculty, staff, and student employees—must follow applicable state and federal requirements including, but not limited to, those regarding student and employee privacy.
• Do not post private information about individuals, such as about students, employees, and alumni.

Wait for guidance before posting during disruption of campus operations.

• Marcom is responsible for all outgoing communications from the College during a local, state, or campus emergency, or while campus operations are disrupted for any reason,
• Messages are developed in coordination with the Executive Cabinet, Senior Leadership, and/or the Emergency Response Team.
• Do not post information relating to campus operations or emergency situations on institutional accounts without guidance from Marcom.
• Re-posting information which is posted on the primary institutional accounts is permitted.

Do not post political positions.

• As a non-profit organization, ArtCenter is prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elected public office. The College may promote only non-partisan voter education or registration activities.

Do not post College confidential information

• Do not post confidential or proprietary information about ArtCenter, including but not limited to, financial information, future business performance and business plans, business and brand strategies, and information that constitutes or relates to the College’s trade secrets.
• All College rules regarding confidential or proprietary information and personal information, including the College’s System Security Policies and Procedures, are applicable to all social media channels and platforms, including blogs and social networking sites. For example, any information that may not be disclosed through a conversation, a note, a letter, or an e-mail also may not be disclosed on a social media platform. This includes private or direct messaging on any social media platform.

Do not violate copyright and intellectual property rights.

• Respect the copyright and intellectual property (“IP”) rights of others and of the College. For guidance, consult ArtCenter’s intellectual property policy. Never post artwork that incorporates someone else’s IP (creative work) if it hasn’t been properly licensed for use by the College because that poses potential legal risk to the College. It is the responsibility of the artist/designer/filmmaker who is using someone else’s work to secure appropriate permissions.

Do not fundraise

• As a non-profit organization, the College is prohibited from promoting third-party fundraising and individual crowd-funding efforts.
• Do not solicit funds or donations on social media for the College, your department or office, or any individual at the College, including yourself.
• Do not promote individual or other organizations’ fundraising efforts.
• Any fundraising activities must be conducted in consultation with the Development Department.

Ownership of institutional accounts

• All social media accounts created by College employees on behalf of the College remain the property of ArtCenter. Account information, including passwords and email addresses linked to a specific social media account, should be stored in a secured location (e.g., a Google doc or ArtCenter email address) that the College has access to. This information must also be provided to Marcom.

Management of institutional accounts

• Marcom will maintain a list of College-sponsored social media pages and sites.
• Departments or College units that have a social media presence or would like to start one must notify Marcom.
• Any College-sponsored account must follow ArtCenter’s branding guidelines which can be found at artcenter.edu/identity. This includes but is not limited to the use of the official dot logo, font, color, and other branding assets.
• College-sponsored accounts should present a professional aesthetic befitting their affiliation with an art and design institution. Images should be sized properly for each platform and graphics should be clear, accessible and align with identity guidelines.
• Nomenclature for account handles should avoid the use of special characters and should follow the following format wherever possible: artcenterproduct, artcentercreativedirection, artcentercpd.
• All College-sponsored social media sites must designate a full-time employee responsible for monitoring the site and ensuring that the content is accurate and reasonably current.
• Out-of-date or unmonitored social media sites must be removed or deactivated.

Enforcement

• These policies are enforced by Marcom which reserves the right to edit or delete disparaging, inappropriate, or offensive posts, including content that violates ArtCenter policy or federal or state law.
• Any individual or department who falls out of compliance is subject to disciplinary action, including the potential suspension of any social media or online presence created by the individual or department.