Stacy Snyder, a former student, is suing Millersville University for $75,000 for denying her a teaching degree after the university found a picture of her drinking when she was underage on her Myspace page.

The day before her graduation, the university informed her of their decision and while the rest of her classmates received their teaching certificates, Stacy was denied. The university claimed she was promoting underage drinking by posting the picture on her Myspace page.

While a precedent isn’t set yet on this issue, With the limited information I read about the case, I think Stacy is right to sue and I think Millersville had a knee jerk reaction as is oh so common with a lack of understanding among universities. Stacy was stupid for posting the picture and it’s not clear if the university confronted her about it before going right to such a harsh discipline.

To pull a learning for the story, We need a bigger push to have year long training on proper internet use, including social networking sties, just as we have training on alcoholism, diversity and job placement. This is not the first or the last time this will happen. Universities should be more proactive in this training rather than wait until an issue occurs and then react.

Student Activities is on the front lines of this issue as they are embedded with the students and will usually be the first ones to hear about something and the first ones asked to do something about it.