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The popular social networking website Facebook now has more than 53 million users in 55,000 networks worldwide, more than half of them being non-college students. According to Facebook.com, the largest growing demographic on the site is users over 25. Wisconsin faculty members are joining this segment of social networkers to connect with students outside the classroom. A growing number of teachers are creating Facebook profiles and giving their students a glimpse into their lives outside the university.

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University of Wisconsin journalism professor Katy Culver is one of the growing number of professors creating their own Facebook profiles.

"It's a nice way to socially connect with current students — to, you know, let them see that you're more than just this face droning in the front of the classroom during lecture," Culver said. "But I don't do any class work through it."

Culver said she's had Facebook for about nine months and uses it to communicate with current students and alumni, as well as family and personal friends. On normal workdays, she says she goes on Facebook about four times a day. She has used it to find and add alumni as friends, although sometimes they friend her first.

Culver accepts any current student who friends her, but she never friends them.

Scott Christensen, a UW junior, said he friended Culver after she announced last spring in class that she had created a Facebook profile. He said he has no problem with a former professor being able to see all of his personal information on Facebook.

"I don't have anything to hide. I don't really see any reason to limit their profile. Quite honestly I don't think it's a case where a professor or a TA is sitting on Facebook looking at their students' profiles," Christensen said. "I thought it would be a good idea to have a way keep in touch with [Culver] after my class experience."

Culver said she doesn't seek out personal information about her students, but sometimes it pops up on her News Feed.

"There's all sorts of Halloween photos, for instance … crazy images all over the place," Culver said. "And students post things on each other's walls and there's language and that kind of stuff. But it's a social network, you know — I mean, my friends tell crude jokes sometimes, too."

However, Culver said there are times when students post something questionable, and one can easily conclude they've forgotten they're linked in with people that could be part of their professional life.

UW junior Sara Ashley Johnson said she isn't friends with any faculty members for that specific reason.

"I think it's just kind of unprofessional, especially if you're in the class at the current time," Johnson said.

Johnson doesn't feel comfortable enough with any of her teachers to be friends with them on Facebook and wouldn't want them to see her personal information. She said she has privacy restrictions set on her profile so only those who have friended her can see her information.

Johnson is not the only Facebook user with this concern. Peter Brinson, a 27-year-old graduate student and sociology teaching assistant at UW, sets his profile so that his contact information is hidden.

"I don't really care if my students know what I did last weekend, but I do care whether students have my home phone number and know where I live," Brinson said.

He added he is not a very active Facebook user, but has had it for about two years. He didn't know much about it, but created an account after hearing about a Facebook group his students started about the sociology professor for whom he was a TA.

"I signed up for an account just to see what they were saying about him. I got several laughs out of it," Brinson said.

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Brinson said he is mostly friends with other graduate students, but has had a few students request him as a friend after they took his class. He is cautious about the types of interaction he has with students on Facebook.

"I'm all in favor of developing relationships with students and everything, but there are lots of stories about romantic relationships and things that develop between professors and students at all levels," Brinson said. "As a teacher you're taught to be careful about that."

Culver urges students to be cautious of how they present themselves on Facebook. When she writes a recommendation for a job or an internship, she often reminds students to clean up their profiles. She said the first thing many employers do before hiring someone is check them out on Facebook.

"Students seem more conscious of the privacy settings now," Culver said. "I'd say three years ago the vast majority of my students were totally public profile[s]. You could just go in and look at them and read their wall and do whatever."

Christensen said his profile is privatized so only his friends can see it, and so he doesn't see Facebook getting in the way of future job opportunities.

"I don't think there are any incriminating pictures that would influence an employer's decision to hire me or not hire me on Facebook," Christensen said. "If there are, obviously I would delete those, but I guess I don't really have any pictures that I find to be that outrageous or anything."

Brinson said he doesn't use Facebook to check up on his students, but knows of other graduate students who do."Logic would say that there's got to be somebody out there who's doing that," Brinson said. "Are you not in class because you're sick or are you not in class because you had this ridiculous night last night that's plastered all over Facebook?"

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The university is also using Facebook to better connect with students in emergency situations.

John Lucas, senior university relations specialist for UW communications, has had Facebook for several years and is just expanding his use of the site. He originally signed up to see what students were interested in and how they get information.

"In the last year or so we've been trying to figure out a way utilize Facebook … in terms of responding to a campus emergency," Lucas said.

Lucas said UW wants to target students who don't necessarily check their e-mail all the time or look at the UW home page often. He created the UW-Madison Emergency Campus Alerts group on Facebook to help the university spread the word if an emergency situation were to be unfolding on campus.

Christensen thought the use of Facebook during the Sept. 25 bomb scare at the UW Hospital was a great idea."I actually thought that was a really creative way to actually use Facebook to their advantage to communicate with students," Christensen said. "Honestly, I think a lot of students spend a lot more time on Facebook than they do checking their e-mail or doing class work."

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According to Brinson, it takes a very particular type of professor to engage students on Facebook. He thinks those teachers that are more comfortable interacting with their students on equal footing use Facebook to express this.

Culver agrees, saying it is a good way for professors to be more identifiable for students.

"I think it's very valuable when you're trying to connect with and understand your students and to figure out how to relay information to them effectively. I think it's very, very important to understand the communication tools that they use," Culver said. "So now that I use Facebook regularly and I get how it works, I think it helps me communicate better with my students."