The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - 3

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Tuesday, October 30, 2012 - 3

Athletes' social media
use monitored by Dept.

MCKENZIE BEREZIN/Daily

Students dress up as zombies to support Food Gatherers on Monday.

Zombie Club marches in
support of Food Gatherers

Student group
raises awareness
for charity
By DANIELLE WALLICK
For the Daily
A peculiar groan emanated
from Nickels Arcade on Monday
night as agroup of approximately
25 students coated in grey and
red face paint attempted to give
their best zombie impressions.
As part of the second annual
Walk of the Dead Event, the
Michigan Zombie Club teamed
up with the University's chapter
of Phi Sigma Pi National Honor
Fraternity to fundraise, gather
canned goods and raise aware-
ness for the Michigan Food
Gatherers Society, an Ann Arbor-
based charity that collects food
for impoverished community
members.
Engineering freshman Lind-
say Podsiadlik led the group,
instructing the students on how
to best act like a zombie. The
group, which included one child
who heard about the event on the
radio and wanted to participate,
limped down South State Street,
cut over to South University Ave-
nue and then gathered in the Diag
before performing a rendition of
Michael Jackson's "Thriller."
ROMNEY
From Pagel -
but is a man of good character.
Ann Romney told the crowd
that they should look to "quiet,
undocumented" moments in order
to size up Mitt Romney's charac-
ter, citing the time he befriended a
14-year-old boy named David with
terminal cancer.
"The last request David made of
Mitt after developing this extraor-
dinary friendship with him was:
'Mitt, would you please give the
eulogy at my funeral?"' Romney
said. "That's the kind of character
of the person who is going to be
sittingin the oval Office."
For the Romney campaign,
the western part of the state
could prove important in gaining
Republican voters. In an analysis
of the state's political climate, the
New York Times described how
the "traditional base of Repub-
lican support" is located in the
southwest region of the state near
Grand Rapids. Data from the 2008
election also reveals that MeCain
won with a margin of 10 to 30 per-
cent over Obama in 6 ofthe 7 coun-
ties surrounding Grand Rapids,
according to the article.
U.S. Rep. Justin Amash (R-
Mich.), who is seeking re-election
in Michigan's 3rd district, and for-
mer U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-
 Mich.), who is the GOP candidate
running against U.S. Sen. Debbie
Stabenow (D-Mich.) for the U.S.
Senate, took the stage before Rom-
ney and emphasized the impor-
tance of the upcoming election.
Amash and Hoekstra, both Uni-
versity alums, fired up the crowd,
stressing the need to unseat
Obama.
"I've been watching President
Obama closely since he's been in

The zombies carried post-
ers delineating the goals of Food
Gatherers during the march, and
despite the cold, many members
of the club said they enjoyed rais-
ing awareness about an impor-
tant issue.
"It was different than any-
thing I've ever done before," LSA
junior Joe Butler said.
Butler said the signs they
carried were a great way to
promote Food Gatherers, espe-
cially because they held them up
to windows as they passed buses
and cars, adding he feels clubs
should combine their efforts
more often.
"There are so many groups
at this school," Butler said. "We
can accomplish more if we group
together."
While raising awareness for
Food Gatherers, the group also
made the most of their costumes,
chasing two men under the Engi-
neering Arch that separates-the
Diagfrom South University.
LSA junior Cam Clark, Zombie
Club co-president, said he was
pleased with the group's accom-
plishments at the end of the night.
"We raised quite a bitof money,
got some canned goods and
everyone had a lot of fun," he said.
"It was a success."
LSA sophomore Annalisa
Provenzano witnessed the group
pouring out of Nickels Arcade and

onto State Street, and said she
thought it was an effective way to
garner attention for an important
cause.
"They will get people's atten-
tion," Provenzano said. "They
will definitely get their point
across for what they are trying to
do."
On their way down South
University, LSA freshman Breah
Dean and Art & Design sopho-
more Lauren Uhlian found them-
selves caught in the zombie mob.
"I almost peed myself," Uhl-
ian said. "I'm a baby though, so I
thought it was really scary. It was
very appropriate for Halloween,
though."
LSA sophomore Elena
Khutoretsky said she was look-
ing to join a fun club on campus,
and found her place in the Zom-
bie Club. She said she enjoyed
the event and thought it was nice
to feel like a part of something
important,
Khutoretsky's roommate, LSA
junior Nick Maue, said this was
his second year participating in
the event. Though he is no lon-
ger a member of the club, he has
volunteered with Food Gatherers
and wanted to extend his involve-
ment by participating inthe walk.
"It's nice to know that when -
I'm not saying if- there is a Zom-
bie apocalypse, we are goingto be
the survivors," Maue said.

For first time,
athletes required
to report accounts
to the University
By HALEY GOLDBERG
Daily News Editor
This fall, Denard Robinson,
Trey Burke and other Michigan
athletes using Twitter have a
new follower - the University's
Athletic Department.
The Athletic Department
issued a social media policy this
fall which outlines guidelines
for using social media as a stu-
dent athlete and the disciplin-
ary process if postings violate
state or federal law, institution-
al policies or NCAA rules.
As stated in the Social Media
Policy - which student ath-
letes signed this fall, along with
other compliance forms - the
Athletic Department must
be notified of all social media
accounts operated by student
athletes. If additional accounts
are "added or changed," ath-
letes must inform the Univer-
sity's Compliance Services
Office, according to the agree-
ment, which was obtained by
Annarbor.com.
The group works to keep the
University's athletic program
"consistent with the letter and
the spirit of NCAA, conference
and University rules and regu-
lations," according to the Com-
pliance Services Office page on
the Athletic Department's web-
site.
David Ablauf, the Universi-
ty's associate athletic director,
said the department has had
a social media policy in place
since 2006, but this year marks
the first formalized policy the
athletes have signed.
"We decided that social
media is such a huge part of
today's society that this year we
were going to look at our policy
and rewrite it," Ablauf said.
"We had our leadership team
within athletics review it and
we all agreed to the formaliza-
tion of this new policy, so we
decided to put it into play this
fall."
Ablauf explained that the
penalties for violating the
policy will be handled by the
Athletic Department, and will
vary on a case-by-case basis.
Examples of prohibited behav-
ior include using offensive lan-
guage, posting after sporting
events when emotions can be
heightened and writing any-
thing that could be interpreted
as endorsements for, products
or services.
"There's different degrees to
the penalties we'll have for dif-
ferent student athletes," Ablauf

said. "Sometimes, if you make
a mistake on social media it
may be a conference with your
coach, or your coach and a sport 
administrator. It may be a con-
ference with the athletic direc-
tor depending on the severity
of the situation ... it could be all
the way to the point of suspen-
sion from competition."
The policy requires that
players provide their Twitter
handles and Facebook account
links to the Athletic Depart-
ment and public relations
groups within the department
to monitor the accounts, Ablauf
said. He added that they do not
request password information
or "behind the scenes access" to
any social media accounts.
Ablauf said the policy seems
to have worked well so far, and
there haven't been any social
media gaffes with student ath-
letes this fall. He hopes the pol-
icy will also educate students
about the importance of build-
ing their own brand via social
media.
"We try to use it more as an
educational process. We want
to educate them about what is
good and what is poor in terms
of how you handle yourself
in social media," Ablauf said.
"Whether you believe it or not,
the companies that will look
to hire and employ you in the
future are looking at your social
media activity."
The new policy comes in
the wake of several incidents
involving athletes on Twit-
ter. Last spring, wide receiver
Roy Roundtree and linebacker
Kenny Demens violated NCAA
recruiting rules by tweeting
their support to a new Univer-
sity commit, linebacker Mike
McCray, before National Sign-
ing Day.
Ablauf said Roundtree was
not aware that he was in viola-
tion of NCAA rules, since the
new recruit was a friend of his.
He highlighted the incident as
an example of how the policy
can help educate .student ath-w
letes about the relationship
between NCAA rules and social
media.
"I think that this just puts it
more in front of people's minds
when they're student athletes,"
Ablauf said. "Our goal is to con-
tinue to educate. Obviously,
they're on the stage, there are
things that happen and things
that people do that they don't
mean to do it, and ... the young
man did not know that was an
NCAA violation. So that's why
for us it's all about educating."
Other universities also moni-
tor student athlete social media
accounts, and some colleges
even opt to outsource the task
to other organizations. The
Universities of North Caro-
lina, Nebraska and Oklahoma

universities work with Var-
sity Monitor, a business that
tracks the social media actions
of student athletes to ensure
they stay within NCAA rules,
according to an article in The
New York Times.
The University of Florida
also works with a company
called UDiligence to monitor
social media actions of their
football players, according to
the article.
Kevin Long, CEO of UDili-
gence, said the business works
with about two dozen uni-
versities, mostly in the BCS
and Division L The company
requires student athletes to
download an online applica-
tion to allow UDiligence to
access their Twitter and Face-
book posts. The company then
uses an automated system with
various key words to search
through messages posted by
athletes and scan for any inap-
propriate content, specified by
the hiring university. The sys-
tem then updates the schools
and athlete of their findings.
Long said the company's mis-
sion is to educate athletes about
creating a social media identity
that will appeal to employers
after graduation. He referred to
the incident this fall in which
Michigan State University foot-
ball players tweeted harshly
about University quarterback
Denard Robinson's perfor-
mance in the Alabama season
opener.
"Some Michigan State play-
ers tweeted thoughts about
Denard Robinson, and because
of what they tweeted, that
is going to be the first thing
that comes up and, as a future
employer, people are going to
take a look at that and think, 'Is
this the type of person we want
to be a part of our team?'" Long
said.
In its 2012-2013 Student-
Athlete Handbook, Michigan
State Athletics Department
provides social media guide-
lines. but it daesa.not monitoi
the social mediaccounts of
their athletes. It holds "ran-
dom checks" of the accounts
and assesses incidents when
brought forward.
Ablauf said the Athletic
Department does not see the
need to bring in an outside
organization to monitor stu-
dent athlete's social media
activity at the University, add-
ing that the public and media
also serve as natural monitors
of social media messages.
"We're looking and monitor-
ing these things, but we aren't
the only people looking at
them," Ablauf said. "We have
not decided to go down the path
of using the company to moni-
tor. Right now we have a pretty
decent process in place."


office, and it's been a disaster, as
most of you know," Amash said.
"And I've got to tell you that he is,
by far, the worst president we've
had in my lifetime, and I had nine
months of Jimmy Carter."
Amash,whoworks onthe House
Budget Committee in Washington,
focused on the importance of bal-
ancingthe budget.
Hoekstra - who formerly
served on the House Intelligence
Committee - discussed his frus-
trations 'with Obama's foreign
policy record, specifically alluding
to the attack on the American con-
sulate in Benghazi, Libya.
"We look at Libya, and we see
four Americans who were brutally
murdered," Hoekstra said. "Not
H-M

because of some stupid movie that
Americans published, but because
radical jihadists saw an opportu-
nity - they saw a weak America
and decided to take advantage of
it."
Hoekstra also denounced Sta-
benow for "squeezing America's
pocketbooks" and asked the crowd
to work tirelessly in the next week
leading up to Election Day.
"There is an enthusiasm that is
not being measured by the polls ...
people are waking up and saying,
we're taking our country back and
we're taking it back now," Romney
said. "A wave - it's happening, and
you can feel it in every room we go
in; you can see it in the eye of every
person you meet."
-Um

NHL agreement, the University will "acts of God, labor disruptions,
be owed $100,000 if the event lockouts and/or strikes ... riots,
From Page 1 is cancelled before Friday. If the insurrections, civil disturbanc-
decision to cancel is not made es, weather, sabotage, embar-
withdrew its most recent by Friday, the NHL maintains goes, blockades, acts of war" or
offer to the Players' Association, the ability to cancel anytime a number of other potential dis-
which seemed to be a last-ditch up until the game, but will then turbances.
effort to preserve a full 82-game have to pay the University a The document also
season. That announcement led total of $350,000. includes a clause that says
to the cancellation of all sched- The contract acknowledges the decision to cancel must
uled games for the month of , the possibility of cancella- come "by delivering written
November. tion due to causes outside of notice thereof to the Univer-
Under the league's current the league's control including sity."
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