Marcus Brown, a recently-graduated supply chain management student, was fired from his mentor position a month before the school year ended for being pictured with alcohol near minors, though he was of legal drinking age.

Brown, who was brought in during his sophomore year to replace a mentor who was fired for the same reason, said he knew of the rule, but was under the impression that everything that happened off campus stayed off campus.

“I think Residence Life should take more proactive steps to let people know the policies,” Brown said. “I know mentors that are facing a lot of the same problems. We’re taught to give others a second chance, but if the same things happen to a mentor, they throw them up the creek.”

Mentors have rules they are expected to follow, said Amy Radford-Popp, assistant director for staff selection and development for the Department of Residence Life.

“The issue at hand is employees portraying themselves in an appropriate manor,” Radford-Popp said.

During the interview process, each of the 327 mentors and student aides on campus are notified of what is expected of them, including that they can be fired or suspended for being caught in situations that are against state, federal or local laws, Radford-Popp said.

One of the expectations, she said, is that they review any messages that could show them breaking the law, including pictures or messages on social networking sites like Facebook.com or MySpace.com that could be incriminating.

“A function of being a mentor is education,” Radford-Popp said. “The most effective way to educate others is appearance.”

The picture of Brown and some underage mentors was taken before the school year started, but didn’t start circling around until April. After he was fired, he said, residents were left without a mentor for the rest of the year.

“While they were just in firing us,” Brown said, “I don’t think it was the right thing to do, especially with only a month left of school.”

The department only searches for illegal activity when something is brought to their attention, either through an incident or from a student, said Radford-Popp, and measures each offense on a case-by-case basis.

“A conversation, at a minimum, would be expected,” Radford-Popp said. “There’s always an invitation to finding out their side of the story.”

English senior Andrew Murray, also a mentor, said that students have to protect themselves as mentors as they would with any job, which means hiding or deleting online postings.

As long as mentors make proper decisions, it shouldn’t be a problem explaining their decisions, Murray said.

“For mentors to not post or post things — anybody with a similar job, a teacher or a role model — for them to put forth a good image is not anything new,” Murray said.