HBCU Community is a space for HBCU students, alumni, and supporters to connect,
collaborate, and uplift each other. These guidelines help us maintain a welcoming,
respectful, and productive environment for everyone. By using the Platform, you agree to
follow these guidelines.
1. Our Values
Our community is built on respect, authenticity, and the shared pride of the HBCU
experience. We believe in lifting each other up, celebrating our diverse backgrounds,
and creating opportunities for meaningful connection across campuses and generations.
2. Expected Behavior
- Be respectful: Treat all members with dignity and courtesy, even when
you disagree. Engage in good faith and assume positive intent.
- Be authentic: Represent yourself honestly. Use your real identity and
provide accurate information about your HBCU affiliation and background.
- Be constructive: Contribute positively to conversations and the community.
Share knowledge, offer support, and help others succeed.
- Be inclusive: Welcome members from all HBCUs and backgrounds. Our strength
comes from the diversity within our community.
- Protect privacy: Respect the privacy of other members. Do not share personal
information about others without their consent.
- Take an answer: Silence is an answer, and so is no. If someone does not
reply, does not want to connect, or has asked you to stop, leave it there.
3. Prohibited Behavior
The following behavior is not tolerated on the Platform:
- Harassment and bullying: Personal attacks, threats, intimidation, or any
behavior intended to demean or harm another member.
- Hate speech: Content that promotes hatred or discrimination based on race,
ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or any other protected characteristic.
- Spam and self-promotion: Unsolicited advertising, repetitive messaging,
or excessive self-promotion that disrupts the community experience.
- Impersonation: Pretending to be someone else or misrepresenting your affiliation
with an HBCU or organization.
- Misinformation: Deliberately sharing false or misleading information.
- Inappropriate content: Sexually explicit material, graphic violence, or
other content not suitable for a professional community.
- Exploitation: Using the Platform to scam, defraud, or take advantage of
other members.
- Misusing what a member shared: Taking contact details, a member list,
or anything else a member gave for one purpose and using it for another, including adding
someone to a mailing list they did not ask to join.
- Pressuring someone who has stopped answering: Repeated approaches to a
member who has not replied, or working around a block, an unsubscribe, or a withdrawn permission
by reaching them another way.
4. Content Standards
All content shared on the Platform should be relevant to the HBCU community and
appropriate for a professional networking environment. This includes profile
information, messages, offerings, and any other content you contribute. We reserve the
right to remove content that violates these guidelines or is otherwise harmful to the
community.
5. Direct Messages
A direct message is a private conversation, and everything above applies to it just as
it applies in the open. Some things are particular to messages:
- One message is an introduction. Five to someone who has not replied is
something else. Say who you are and what you are asking, once, and let it rest.
- Do not pitch. Messages are not the place to sell a product, recruit for
a business opportunity, solicit donations, or promote something unrelated to the person
you are writing to.
- What is said to you privately stays private. A message somebody sent you
is not yours to repost, forward, or screenshot into a group.
- Blocking needs no explanation. If you do not want to hear from someone,
block them. Blocking is not a report, so if the behavior is something we should see, report
it as well.
6. Groups
Alumni chapters and student organizations are run by their own members. Leading one
means looking after information about the people who joined:
- Use group email and messages for group business only.
- Use a member's contact details only to reach them about the group, and stop once your
role ends or they withdraw them.
- If a member unsubscribes, withdraws a detail, or leaves, respect it. Do not reach them
another way.
Section 8 of our Terms of Service states
the same obligations in binding form.
7. Reporting and Enforcement
If you encounter behavior that violates these guidelines, report it. A member's profile,
a group, and any message you have received each carry a report control in the product,
and reporting there is better than writing to us, because it brings us the thing you are
reporting rather than a description of it. We take all reports seriously and will
investigate promptly. Enforcement actions may include:
- A warning to the member
- Temporary suspension of account privileges
- Removal of content
- Permanent account termination
We will apply enforcement actions proportionally based on the severity and frequency of
the violation. Violations of these guidelines may also constitute a breach of our Terms of Service.
8. Contact Us
If you have questions about these guidelines or need to report a concern, please contact
us at hello@thehbcu.community.
HBCU COMMUNITY