Formerly advertising "liquid sweetness distribution" on its Facebook group profile, this year's Delta Sigma Phi annual Reggae Jam kept the music and the dreads, but lost the booze pitch.
Flanking a jar of strawberry jam in dreadlocks, the event's page explains that the group is the second to publicize it because the first was too "awesome" for Facebook.
The group selected a tamer name for the event after Delta Sig President David Furfaro, a junior, received an e-mail from Todd Adams, assistant director of students for fraternity and sorority life, Furfaro said.
"I'm quite disappointed with the Facebook group for Reggae Jam," Adams wrote in an e-mail to Furfaro obtained by The Chronicle. "I hope it'll be changed or taken down given the inherent message it conveys and the violation of risk management policy."
Furfaro said he changed the name of the group without complaint and saw "no real harm in [it]." He added that the basic message of the group remained on the group's profile.
Though Adams does not have a Facebook profile, a number of other Duke administrators have pages on the site along with thousands of Duke students who frequent the site daily.
"What I don't do is lurk in places I'm not invited," said Larry Moneta, vice president for students affairs. "I welcome having more friends, but I don't want to intrude."
Dean of Students Sue Wasiolek said she is "more of a responder" on Facebook, replying to messages from students and accepting their friend requests.
"I'm sort of embarrassed to say I've never asked anyone to be my friend," she said. "Maybe one of these days I will branch out a bit."
Wasiolek and Moneta said they cannot remember precisely when they created their profiles but have wall posts dating back to 2005. Wasiolek reviews movies, is on a TV Show Trivia Team and takes likeness quizzes and Moneta shares books, tracks sports teams and maps his travels. Both said they are addicted to the Scrabulous application and have joined the legion of more than 27,000 Cameron Crazies on the site.
Moneta, who has more than 200 friends in the Duke network, said students' activities documented on Facebook have been "pretty reasonable and pretty responsible."
Wasiolek, however, said she sometimes wonders whether students are aware of how widely available personal information can become on the Internet. She added that she has not contacted any students about objectionable profile content but might do so out of concern for the individual.
"If I knew a student and felt that what the student had represented about him or herself might be harmful to them, I might just make them aware of my concern," Wasiolek said. "I hope that students would understand that anyone who did that was doing it just to be helpful. The ultimate decision would be with the student."
Former Duke Student Government president Elliott Wolf, a senior, is Facebook friends with Moneta, Wasiolek and a number of other administrators. Wolf said he has fun tagging photos of them and has used the site as a last resort lobbying effort.
"You e-mail them-if that doesn't work, you yell at them; if that doesn't work, you probably involve The Chronicle," he said. "You're out of luck if Facebook is all that's left."
Freshman Taylor Hausburg said he added Moneta as a friend after he spoke at a freshmen leadership program and said she has not been more cautious on Facebook since doing so.
"I forget he's my friend all the time," she said. "I don't think twice about what I put on Facebook because I figure he has better things to with his time than surf kids' profiles."
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