6650 Official Public Communications and Social Media

Original Date: 5/22/1996 | 3/12/2025
Policy Contact: Vice President, Institutional Advancement

Policy

Bellevue College is committed to honesty, accuracy, currency, consistency, and professionalism in its public communications. Overall responsibility for ensuring that this commitment is realized lies with the institutional advancement office. In carrying out this charge, institutional advancement leads and coordinates all the college’s official public communications activities. It provides oversight on communications, advertisements, and speeches and manages all public pronouncements, except emergency BC Alerts. Institutional advancement manages interactions with news media and outside parties that interact with college social media. Oversight does not extend to interpersonal communications with college constituents, except for interactions with news reporters or other outside parties who may post official communications to public platforms, such as social media.

Further, the college recognizes that social media platforms (e.g., Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.)  have become vital and influential communication channels for the community. Social media offers the opportunity to connect, engage, and build meaningful relationships with current and prospective students, alumni, faculty, staff, and the broader community. Through these platforms, BC highlights college offerings, celebrates accomplishments, and invites discussions on important ideas and issues that resonate with the college’s mission and values.

Although institutional advancement coordinates the college’s official public communications, all college administrators, faculty, and staff members share responsibility for providing accurate and consistent information about college activities, course offerings, policies, procedures, etc., in all forms of communication. The chair of a program issuing an official public communication and the related division chair (or, in non-instructional departments, the department head and the appropriate dean/vice president) bear specific responsibility for approving the content and appearance of all publications originating in their areas and adhering to the college’s Publication and Style Guide, including the Social Media Guidelines.

Social media posts during emergencies and crisis situations

  • In the event of an emergency or crisis, Bellevue College uses BC Alerts as the primary communication method with the community.
  • Managers of official BC social media accounts should only share information provided by the main BC social media accounts and in official college messages, as sharing unverified or unofficial information may lead to the spread of false or confusing details in the community.
  • All official BC accounts are required to postpone any scheduled posts during an emergency or crisis.

Prohibited content for official social media accounts on behalf of Bellevue College

To maintain a constructive and civil discourse, do not post the following on social media accounts created and maintained on behalf of Bellevue College:

Harmful content

  • Personal attacks, harassment, insults, violent, or threatening language
  • Information or links that may compromise a person’s safety, or public or private system security such as malware, phishing, impersonation, or ransomware
  • Conduct or encouragement of illegal activity, including publication of an untrue statement that would harm a person’s reputation or livelihood, or violation of intellectual property or copyright laws

Discriminatory content

  • Profane, obscene, or racist language or content
  • Content that promotes, fosters, or perpetuates discrimination based on race, color, age, religion, gender, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, national origin, physical or mental disability, or sexual orientation.

Inappropriate content

  • Sexual content or links to sexual content
  • Support for or opposition to political campaigns or ballot measures
  • Non-college related commercial messages, including advertisements, solicitations, and spam.

Consequences for violating this policy

Potential criminal conduct, including threats and cyberattacks, may be reported to the appropriate law enforcement authorities.

  • The college reserves the right to hide, remove, or report the relevant platform comments that contain prohibited content on all online services and sites hosted, managed, or administered by Bellevue College. The college will act in accordance with behaviors outlined in policies 1440 and 2050 and others.
  • A copy or electronic record of removed content may be retained pursuant to the records retention policy.

Communications and social media

  • Communications must follow the approval procedures described in #6650P Communications and Publications Procedures and #6550P Posting of Literature.
  • Student printed publications should carry the organization name or another appropriate logo to clearly indicate that the publication is not an official communication from the college.
  • The EEO statement or its corresponding webpage link, should be contained within the “about” section of each Bellevue College official social media account and updated annually.

Relevant Laws and Other Resources

Revision History

Original 5/22/1996
Revisions 5/10/2005; 1/8/2007; 5/21/2009; 10/31/2014; 10/15/2015; 10/3/2024; 3/12/2025

Approved By

Board of Trustees

Last Updated March 19, 2025