In 2010, a volunteer in Connecticut posted on her Facebook profile after working the night shift at Martin House, a homeless shelter in her town. In the post, she called the shelter residents “spooky.” The volunteer was asked not to come back to the shelter for the exploitation of the homeless she served.

To make a Facebook profile is to make a critical agreement. The creator inherently agrees that anything they post can and will be seen by their Facebook friends and further, whoever those Facebook friends choose to show thereafter. Political comments, daily happenings, random thoughts and check-ins at Starbucks are all — when posted on Facebook — open for consumption by any number of friends who have access to that profile, a number that could be thousands of Internet users.

To accept a position as a representative in Student Government is also to make a critical agreement. That agreement involves first and foremost presenting the general opinions and behaviors of the group who voted the representative into office. That agreement involves acting as an honorable and fair member of the community, one that the voters can be proud to have representing them in the greater picture of their school.

Having made both of the aforementioned agreements, the Junior Class Representative Irene Pañeda-Reinlein has made a pact with her classmates: she acts as a communicator for the Class of 2014, the inaugural class of this university. She now is responsible to use her presence in any capacity where Student Government is present in the mindset that her actions reflect those of the entire junior class. Given that NYUAD Student Government members often use Facebook as a means to communicate official business, Facebook is one of those capacities. As an example of Student Government's wide presence on Facebook, the NYUAD Student Life page contains posts announcing General Assembly meetings and decisions made by Student Government.

This responsibility was ignored this week in response to Lisa Miller’s NY Magazine article, a critical review of NYUAD. Miller addressed harsh criticisms of the university, many of which were overly dramatic and caused a stir among students. NYUNY student Jessica de Oliveira, who is currently studying abroad in Abu Dhabi, was featured in Miller’s article and quoted describing Sama Tower and DTC as a bubble. De Oliveira also mentioned the strange paradox of Abu Dhabi in the Gulf in that it feels less like the Middle East than she expected. After reading the article and feeling offended by its contents, Pañeda-Reinlein tagged de Oliveira in a post on her Facebook wall with written hopes that a section of the article was not a direct quote from de Oliveira. This made the post available to be seen by the majority of the NYUAD community, including members of the 2014 class studying abroad with whom Pañeda-Reinlein is responsible for communicating the issues that occur here in Abu Dhabi.

The Representative asked de Oliveira to stop making untrue statements about the university, and told her that it was de Oliveira’s fault that Sama felt like a bubble. Pañeda-Reinlein published her Facebook post before speaking with de Oliveira and, in doing so, took the opportunity to make these requests over the Internet. She also questioned why the article focused on an interview of someone who is a non-NYUAD student.

Aside from the basic principle that NYUNY students studying at NYUAD act as full members of the community while they are here, I would like to note that de Oliveira has been at this university just as long as any student in the freshman class. Furthermore, her appreciation for NYUAD is displayed by her extension of her study away period for an entire extra semester.

Because Pañeda-Reinlein’s actions revolve around a university matter on an accessible forum to the student body, they implicitly reflect those of the entire junior class.

Pañeda-Reinlein argued in an email sent to the entire NYUAD junior class that her “Facebook page is personal and it should not be held to the same standards as Student Life.” However, she has made two critical agreements: that of her responsibility to the Class of 2014 and that of her publicized opinions on Facebook. As soon as she made the agreement with her classmates, the agreement she made with her Facebook profile became twice as important.

Whether Pañeda-Reinlein feels that her personal opinion affects the entire junior class, her actions on that profile do affect her classmates because, as Pañeda-Reinlein stated herself in the email, “If these views are public, being criticized publicly is a consequence we as community members have to accept.” The Representative made her views on Miller’s article and de Oliveira’s involvement public. Thus, those views are fair game for any person who sees them to criticize in any way. They could easily be interpreted as the opinion of any member of the NYUAD junior class, given her position at the school.

A volunteer in Connecticut lost her position for insulting the people she served on her Facebook page. Representatives in Student Government serve their classmates. Representing a group of people necessitates thinking twice when posting opinions on the Internet. If the Student Government President of NYUAD posted negative opinions on her Facebook wall about her classmates, it would be unacceptable because of her position in the school. In the same way, the Junior Class Representative’s attack of an NYU junior is unacceptable. As a junior, I would not want someone representing me to publicly lash out toward a classmate. Yet a week has passed and despite some reaction among students, the incident has not been addressed.