adults that aren't adults? US university bloggers

Go to university, be a free adult?  Not so much.

Nine [under the age of 21]^* students at N.C. State are facing charges of violating the school's alcohol policy after a residential adviser visited one of their profiles on Facebook and found links to pictures of them drinking. Facebook, which lets students create and share personal profiles, is enormously popular on campuses nationwide.

...

Cases similar to the one at N.C. State are cropping up across the country. Northern Kentucky University reportedly fined five students and put one on a one-year probation from campus housing after finding pictures, via Facebook, of the students with a keg of beer in their dorm room. The University of California at Santa Barbara recently warned that students living on campus can be disciplined for the content of their Facebook profiles. And Fisher College in Boston expelled a student this fall for posting threatening comments about a campus police officer on the site.  

An official at N.C. State emphasized the public nature of the forums and stressed that students shouldn't assume such virtual material won't have consequences in the offline world.

"There is no reasonable expectation of privacy" on these sites, said Paul Cousins, director of the office of student conduct at N.C. State. "So I have no concerns about any university becoming aware of issues via Facebook and then following up on those concerns."

^* 21 is the legal drinking age in the United States.

I begin to wonder where, exactly, we are left with a "reasonable expectation of privacy".

Sympatico - MSN - CNet As teens embrace blogs, schools sound an alarm

Is there anything that doesn't alarm schools and parents?

"Here's a cool new technology, let's react with paranoia and orwellianism."

sigh

Of course, it's not like there aren't consequences for blogging post-university either.

GlobeTechnology - December 30, 2005 - Beware skeletons in Web closets

What's written in the far, dark reaches of cyberspace is often more permanent — and damaging — than you think.

"I think it's going to be a lesson for everyone to be a little more careful with what they do," says Tamara Small, a political and Internet studies doctorate candidate at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.

"It's this warning to people that blogs are in the public sphere."

Michael Klander's downfall from executive vice-president of the federal Liberal party's Ontario wing followed an on-line avalanche of condemnations over nasty remarks made on his Internet web log.

Still, I think there's a difference between an adult in a public position (election campaign) writing something stupid and getting caught, and deliberately policing university blogging looking for infractions.