A group of York students has won the opportunity to have their very own I-phone application developed after winning The App Challenge final, held at the Ron Cooke Hub on Wednesday, January 18.
YUSU Welfare officer Bob Hughes has warned students to be vigilant after a student loans phishing scam has been revealed.
Her Majesty the Queen will be visiting York on Maundy Thursday, 5th April, as part of the 800th anniversary of York’s Charter for the traditional “Royal Maundy” ceremony.
A flood caused by a heating system “failure” forced the university IT services to shut down many essential systems on Sunday night, causing problems for many students on the eve of their exams and assignment due-dates.
The university's Web Committee has formed the report to inform staff members on how Facebook should be used safely and the appropriate level of interaction between them and students.
Maz Hardy, from the Department of Sociology, presented a “Facebook Strategy” to the university's Web Committee.
The report details the problems that may be caused by students displaying private data on their profiles and befriending academic staff members, as well as security issues.
Whilst Hardy suggests that informal emails are fine, becoming "friends" with a lecturer may be inappropriate.
In the report Hardy highlights that many students believe profiles are invisible to people outside their networks, and points out that anyone can search for someone, and can view limited information about them.
She also said: “There’s a real social naivety around it. There’s a real fine line as information is in the public domain. They [students] sign up to a university network, and if they harm an individual the university have a responsibility to act on that.”
She also pointed out that because the York UK network was technically a university domain, the university could use information gathered from profiles.
Hardy discussed an incident where students tagged pictures of themselves setting off fire extinguishers, and were subsequently punished by the university because the pictures were published on the university network.
Hardy said that whilst students can find a way around allowing public knowledge of their activities by raising their privacy settings or not tagging pictures, they should be careful.
YUSU Societies & Communications Officer Sam Bayley welcomed raising awareness of what information students put online, both in terms of security, and also the possibility of potential employers using that information. He said: “As long as students are mindful of the risks, I'm sure they're wise enough to make their own decisions on who they become friends with.”
Suraj Gangani, a second year Management student, said: "I don't feel that the uni should monitor Facebook. It is a social forum like any other, and it could set a dangerous precedent."
"I'm not personally friends with any lecturers, but I can understand why it's a useful contact when you leave university."
However, he added: "It's a forum for people you regularly see and keep in touch with, you can always ring the university if you need to."
The report was written before Christmas, and Hardy pointed out that with the new arrival of "Facebook Chat", a instant messenger service, the report may need re-writing.
Big Brother is watching!
comment deleted by a moderator Hear hear Mitch. Perhaps The Yorker should take a Slashdot approach to anonymous posting and have them all attributed to "Anonymous Coward"?
Unfortunately Chris...I already stole that username.....
comment deleted by a moderator
comment deleted by a moderator Who cares?
lol at all the deletes. ahh well.
Hi, this is Big Brother. I was watching, but this is boring, so I'm going to watch something else now. I hear that there's paint drying on a shopfront on Walmgate. That sounds more interesting.
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