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While many students use Facebook as a way to keep in touch with friends, post pictures and meet new people, an increasing number of faculty members are using Facebook for many reasons.
Keith Swim, a clinical assistant professor of management, uses Facebook to communicate with his students.
Because some of his classes have several hundred students, he said, it can be difficult to know who they are if they send him e-mails.
"If they send a [Facebook] message, it helps me put a face with a name," he said.
Swim creates a Facebook group for each of his classes and posts messages to his students using these groups. He said he cannot contact them all at once using the Neo system because he has so many students. The Facebook groups allow him to contact a larger number of students at once.
"I think it's a great tool to get in touch with people," he said.
Swim has also created groups for causes with which he is involved. He organizes a canned food drive, a present collection for children in need during Christmastime and a program in which students make cards for people who are sick or in need of comforting.
He said that with Facebook groups, his former students can stay involved with projects even though they are no longer in his class.
Swim said he tells his students at the beginning of each semester that they can add him on Facebook and join their class group. He even includes it on his syllabus and on the answering machine in his office.
However, he said he has no problem if a student does not want to add him as a Facebook friend.
Swim said his biggest annoyances about Facebook are the News Feed and invitations for applications. His favorite feature is the groups.
He created his account in 2006 when some of students showed him how to sign up.
"It's kind of snowballed from there," he said.
While some faculty members find Facebook to be useful and fun, others stick to alternative means of communication.
Drew Vastano, a professor of oceanography, said that while he has never really thought about creating a Facebook account, he would not be against getting one.
"I just like to interact with people and enjoy that a lot," he said. "Doing such in a round-about way of thumbing through Facebook and reading would seem to me to be rather dry compared to conversation face-to-face."
He has nothing against other faculty members being on Facebook, Vastano said.
"I think it is a personal choice for each of us to make," he said. "Although I must admit, I've never even considered Facebook. I like real people, right here, too much to just read a file about them."
Douglas Starr, a professor in the department of agricultural leadership, education and communications, said he created his Facebook account in 2005 when he was preparing to take a group of agricultural journalism students to Scotland. Facebook was a way for them to learn about each other before the trip because many of the students and faculty members on the trip were from different universities.
"Other than that, I have no use for Facebook," he said.
While he accepts people who add him as a friend, Starr said, he does not post personal information on his profile. He does not check Facebook unless he receives an e-mail notification of activity on his profile.
Starr said he prefers to use the Neo system to communicate with his students.
"Neo is far superior," he said. "I can contact selected students or I can contact all my students at one time."
Starr said he has several concerns about Facebook - he has found that many students, particularly women, post too much personal information and is concerned that students are posting things that will jeopardize future job opportunities.
"Whoever you work for - you represent that company, just as [students] represent Texas A&M now," he said. "A corporation will look and see what you write on your Facebook."
Despite this, Starr said he likes some aspects of Facebook. The students who traveled to Scotland posted pictures after the trip, which allowed him to see pictures that he did not take. Facebook helps him keep in touch with his daughter-in-law and granddaughter who live in Krum, Texas.
"I look upon this machine as a tool," he said of his computer. "I use this in my work. This is just a quick postal service."
Mark White, a lecturer within the department of kinesiology, said he has had a Facebook account for one and a half years and had found it to be a great tool in keeping in touch with friends and students. But it can be too invasive at times.
White has a policy that he will not add students as friends, he said, but will accept students who add him as a friend.
He said he decided to make a Facebook account because of pressure from his friends, and he checks it on a daily basis.
White said he isn't aware of any specific regulations regarding what he can or cannot post as a faculty member, but he is careful about the image he presents.
"I don't want to be a bad influence," he said.
Amber Epley, a junior sports management major, said she is friends with two professors on Facebook - Swim and Reuben May, an associate professor of sociology.
Epley said she it is a good thing for faculty members to be on Facebook.
"I think it helps them connect better with the students," she said. "If class is canceled, most [students] are going to check their Facebook before their e-mail."
Epley said May uses Facebook as a way to get to know his students better and sometimes sends them personalized messages.
"I think it makes them look more approachable to students," she said. "I don't think it's really weird - I think it's kind of cool."
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