College students across the nation are beginning to pay the price for publicizing their weekend adventures on Facebook.com, as college administrators have discovered the popular on-line directory and are using the site’s digital profiles as a means of meting out disciplinary action.

The brainchild of Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook, an online database that links universities and colleges across the nation through social networking, has become a staple of college communication since its inception in 2004.

The social networking phenomenon, which allows students to create profiles consisting of everything from favorite movies and music to what parties they’re planning on attending, has quickly made its mark on college campuses as a ubiquitous social fixture.

Ubiquity aside, it’s Facebook’s other “face” which has proved to be less than entertaining for hundreds of students.

At Penn State, for example, after last October’s Ohio State versus Penn State football game, Nittany Lions fans stormed the field after a 17-10 victory.

According to a report in the Jan. 27, 2006, issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education, police were tipped off approximately a week later with information of a Facebook group titled, “I Rushed the Field after the OSU Game (And Lived!).”

Days later, nearly 50 students had been referred to the Penn State Office of Judicial Affairs.

Similar events have been reported in recent months, including one in which four students at Northern Kentucky University were fined for posting pictures of a drinking party on Facebook. The pictures, taken inside a dormitory, were considered proof that the students were in violation of the university’s dry campus policy.

Suspicions that campus police keep tabs on students through Facebook were confirmed at George Washington University in January after the police, many of whom are Facebook members, arrived to shut down a “cake party” (now depicted at cakeparty.org) advertised on the social directory.

The police found only cake, no alcohol, and later claimed the dorm raid had been triggered by a noise complaint.

So what does this Orwellian nightmare mean for Binghamton’s own?

Orwell said Big Brother is always watching. Now, so might University officials.

“We do not have a policy at this time,” University spokesperson Gail Glover said. “Disciplinary action could be taken if a violation of the law, as reported on Facebook, was brought to our attention and the University determined that it was necessary to take appropriate action in order to protect the University community.”

By its nature, Facebook makes even relative anonymity on the Internet virtually impossible. Students’ full names are listed, along with enough identifying information to open a checking account in his or her name. While students use Facebook in many ways, it’s several of the site’s more popular features that have been getting many students introduced to their local police departments.

The ability to post pictures coupled with the average student’s lack of discretion has given both police and administrators a veritable invitation into the social life of any given collegian.

An article in the Middlebury College newspaper explains, “The Facebook feeds into the delicious vanity of its users. In the same way that having 300-plus friends makes you feel all warm and tingly inside, so does creating and being part of a group.”

Such “delicious vanity” can be seen in Binghamton Facebook groups, which include “Future College Drop-outs,” “Olde English is My Middle Name,” and the ever popular “I Was Obviously Shitfaced Out of My Fucking Mind When My Facebook Picture Was Taken.”

Ultimately, what Facebook lacks is privacy rights, something that many students wrongly assume the site provides them.

So, do administrators and university police departments really have nothing better to do than peruse the 3.85 million registered users for even the scantest hint of dorm room debauchery?

“Photographs become public property and may be used for purposes you might not intend,” said Glover, a Facebook member since January. “We would certainly encourage students to remember that any information they post is open to the public.”