Policy Principles

Below you will find principles that govern MICA’s social media policy. MICA social contributors must also comply with MICA’s Employment Conduct, Employee Policies, and Institutional Policies. Additional relevant information is available in the Employee Handbook.

Use of MICA brand and logo:

Do not use MICA’s brand, such as name, color, and logos, except as permitted by MICA’s Office of Strategic Communication], MICA’s branding guidelines are included in the Communications Toolkit.

Use of intellectual property:

Abide by this Intellectual Property Policy which sets forth MICA’s policies concerning ownership and use of intellectual property created by MICA’s faculty members, students, staff and guests, as well as compliance with copyright laws, including uses of copyright protected resources and materials.

Do not disclose, post or share MICA information, work, or communication that is proprietary. This includes, but is not limited to, intellectual property, operating plans, vendor communications, financial data, and correspondence, tutorials and FAQs intended to assist the internal MICA community. If you are unsure whether information is confidential or not, please contact the Strategic Communications Department: communications@mica.edu

Confidential information:

Do not disclose collaborations with colleagues that have not been approved to be made public.

Do not use or disclose personally identifiable information including protected health information, student records, donor information, employee information, home addresses, student email addresses, and social security numbers. Please see MICA’s Privacy Statement for further details.

General communication on social media:

Remember that you are representing MICA. All of your posts, comments and actions on social networks have the ability to affect the reputation of the College as well as other individuals affiliated with MICA.

Be thoughtful and use discretion when engaging on social networking services. Know your posts can reach anyone and may be misinterpreted or show up outside of its original context.

Staff your effort appropriately. While student interns can be tremendous collaborators on social media initiatives, they should not be the “owners” of official MICA-branded social media accounts or profiles. Such profiles should be owned and maintained by staff and/or faculty as appropriate.

Moderate comments judiciously. Comments are an important part of social networking services. Do not delete comments simply because you disagree with the commenter’s point of view or because the commenter has reacted negatively. However, you have the authority to delete comments that:

expose the private data of others,
contain commercial solicitations,
are factually erroneous/libelous,
are off-topic,
are threatening or abusive,
or are obscene.

If you encounter threatening comments on a post, please contact MICA’s Social Media team at socialmedia@mica.edu or the Office of Campus Safety at campus_safety@mica.edu or 410-225-2245.

Communication around sensitive topics:

Abide by MICA’s established Social Agreement in reference to communication around COVID-19, influenza, or other infectious diseases.

Do not express political opinions or engage in political activities, when engaging on social on MICA’s behalf. Your political opinions should only be expressed on personal social media accounts and must avoid the appearance that you are speaking or acting for the College.

Do not engage in behavior that could raise conflicts of interest on social networks. MICA’s Institutional Policies establish types of prohibited activity that apply.

Crisis communications:

In the event of an emergency and/or college communications crisis, any crisis management messaging will come from MICA’s flagship accounts, unless otherwise specified.

In these situations, MICA’s Communications staff will notify affiliate accounts to not post new information on their own channels. Lead followers asking questions to the College’s flagship social media channels. If you have posts scheduled to be shared, please pause them immediately.

Account security:

Minimize security risks to social media accounts and profiles, a compromised account can adversely affect MICA’s reputation. To minimize risk to MICA-branded social accounts and profiles:
Use strong, randomized passwords;
Limit direct access;
Activate multi-factor authentication where available;
Register accounts using only mica.edu email addresses; and
Regularly monitor social accounts.
Take action to remove dormant social media accounts that are listed in MICA’s name.