VCOM Faculty Handbook

• Students, faculty, and staff must avoid using statements, photographs, video, or audio that reasonably could be viewed as malicious, obscene, threatening or intimidating, that disparages any member of the college community, or that might constitute harassment, bullying or accusation. Examples of such conduct might include offensive posts meant to intentionally harm someone's reputation or posts that could contribute to a hostile work environment on the basis of race, sex, disability, religion, or any other status protected by law or college policy. • Do not make any comment that could be viewed as discriminatory or harassment of any kind. • Students, faculty, and staff should ensure that their social media activity does not interfere with their academic commitments or the academic commitments of others. • Adhere to HIPAA and FERPA regulations. Do not use or disclose personally identifiable information (PII). Examples of such information include, but are not limited to, protected health information (PHI), student records, donor information, employee information, home addresses, and social security numbers. o Students and employees involved in patient care must maintain HIPAA regulations and maintain patient privacy and confidentiality at all costs. Students and employees must never post information about any patient or about a patient’s care, whether the patient is identified or not. o Do not display images of patients, cadavers, or body parts of patients or cadavers. o Do not display images from OMM or physical diagnosis labs unless VCOM administration has given approval for the use of such photos. • Do not give medical advice, as this may result in a violation of HIPAA and may cause danger to others. • Do not have interactions with patients on any form of social media. To do so may damage the doctor patient relationship and may have legal consequences. • Students, faculty, and staff are discouraged from “friending” one another unless they are sure that their social media communications are worthy of an academic relationship. • Do not promote or condone unprofessional or high-risk behaviors such as, excessive use of alcohol, high risk sexual behaviors, and other such behaviors that would be embarrassing or potentially harmful to the person or to VCOM. • Avoid using information or conducting activities that may violate applicable local, state, or federal laws and regulations. • Avoid engaging in behavior that could raise actual or apparent conflicts of interest and conflicts of commitment on social networks. VCOM’s Policy on Conflicts of Interest and Industry Relationships (U015) sets forth the types of prohibited activity. • Do not endorse commercial partners or advertise on behalf of external vendors. Use of VCOM’s name, marks, or research examples for corporate promotion, regardless of whether the information is in the public domain, can jeopardize the integrity of our research and our non-profit tax-exempt status. This includes a prohibition on ad placement for commercial partners, partner content marketing or “advertorials,” announcement of commercial partnerships by VCOM, and participation in published case studies about VCOM’s relationship with commercial partners. • Do not share confidential or proprietary information about VCOM and/or its students, faculty, staff, and alumni. This includes, but is not limited to, financial, recruitment, student conduct and/or human resources data; internal strategies, reports ,and conversations; personal contact information, as well as college news and announcements that are managed by the Division of Communications, Marketing, Website and Publications. If you are unsure whether information is confidential or not, please contact the Division of Communications, Marketing, Website and Publications or the Office of the General Counsel. • Be respectful of intellectual property rights and laws. Use of third-party copyrighted or trademarked material or use of a person’s likeness without permission in digital content may be illegal and may expose VCOM to significant financial liability and reputational risk. Administrators and editors of official social media are responsible for obtaining the necessary clearance for its use of intellectual property rights (e.g. music and photos) and a person’s likeness in connection with their communications activities.

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