University of Minnesota Duluth v. Varsity Athletes [1]

During the 2006-07 academic year, the University of Minnesota Duluth banned student-athletes from using popular social networking sites such as Facebook [2]and Myspace [3]. The University asked students to stop using the sites after an online posting resulted in disciplinary action.

After the 2006-07 academic year, the University lifted the ban and replaced it with a Student-Athlete Conduct Policy [4] that athletes were required to sign. The policy does not completely ban participation in any social networking sites, but it does prohibit "the posting on any internet web site of any remarks that can be considered as inflammatory, degrading or in poor taste toward any other UMD student, student-athlete, coach, faculty or staff member."

It does not appear that any disciplinary action has been taken against individual students in relation to this policy.