By Sammie Hill–
Striving to build and maintain a respectable reputation for its athletes, the University of Louisville utilizes UDiligence, a computer program that monitors the content of athletes’ social networking sites. UDiligence examines athletes’ Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube accounts for inappropriate posts and comments. If the program finds such content, UDiligence automatically sends alert emails to the student-athlete, his or her coach and the University’s compliance officers. UDiligence’s website reveals that U of L lies among other schools such as Louisiana State University, the University of Kansas and the University of Texas as users of this program.
UDiligence not only prevents forbidden contact with agents and recruiters but also deters scandals by prohibiting careless posts that could potentially cause trouble for a student-athlete. Troublesome posts can lead to embarrassing media coverage, alumni complaints and NCAA investigations, damaging the athlete’s reputation and jeopardizing his or her career.
For example, the Washington Post reveals that a highly rated high school recruit from New Jersey had a scholarship offer retracted by Michigan after derogatory language of a sexual or racial nature appeared on his Twitter.
“[Social media] gives you a chance to see a little bit more about that young man that you’re recruiting,” Maryland Coach Randy Edsall said in an interview with the Washington Post. “In terms of what is on his Facebook? If they Twitter, what are they Twittering? It’s good because you can find out a lot about an individual by following them on social media and taking a look at their Facebook page.”
Inappropriate comments also reflect poorly on coaches and athletic directors, giving the overall program a negative image. In today’s world where the Internet has become effortlessly accessible, inappropriate posts can spread rapidly, generating widespread controversy for the athlete and the program they represent. UDiligence helps avoid these types of situations by isolating contentious comments and catalyzing their removal.
However, some argue that since this program lacks the ability to detect context, individuals sometimes get penalized for using words that automatically trigger an alert despite using them in appropriate ways that should not warrant a punishment.
“I think UDiligence is a good program in theory,” explains sophomore Amy Van Syoc, a member of the U of L rowing team, “but it has a lot of flaws in what words it flags or doesn’t flag. Also, a lot of people just like to post song lyrics on Facebook which contain flagged words, but since the program can’t see the context of the words, a lot of words get flagged that don’t need to be.”
Although some disagree with the use of this program, student-athletes directly represent the University of Louisville; thus, their conduct should convey the ideals that this school wants to project. UDiligence encourages student-athletes to align their behavior with the University’s values, helping them to become excellent representations of U of L as well as professional, mature and responsible individuals in their daily lives.
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Photos courtesy UDiligence
