Prospective students of UW-Eau Claire may be having their Facebook viewed by someone they didn’t confirm as a friend.

According to a Sept. 23 article by The Badger Herald, a Survey Research Unit at Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions asked colleges around the country, including Eau Claire, whether they had consulted social networking sites regarding applicants. The survey found 10 percent of the 320 schools participating in the survey had checked a social networking site when deciding whether to admit a potential student.

The decision for the admission officers to check social networking sites is not wrong considering the public nature of the pages. Deciding to display material is also making the decision to expose them to the public, including the admissions officers.

However, the decision to consult the pages is unnecessary at the undergraduate level of a public school. It would be more acceptable at the law, business, nursing or private school levels. Certain students are able to have excellent ACT scores and maintain high grade point averages while still undertaking a questionable lifestyle. Since college deals with education, a social network page should not make or break a decision to admit someone.

The only scenario where checking these sites would be acceptable is when a decision between two students with similar grades is necessary. Also, if prospective students have gone through certain measures to make sure their profile and pictures are private, then the admissions officers should not hack their way in to check their sites.

At the same time, steps should be taken to prevent pages from being viewed in a negative light by admissions officers.

It is the responsibility of those who have sites to keep questionable materials off of them. Privatizing profiles, photographs and walls are easy steps that could help students in the long run.