Comments written on a Facebook Web site led to the firing of a columnist at Pennsylvania State University’s student newspaper and raised questions about where to draw the line on freedom of speech.

According to insidehighered.com, Zachary Good, junior in Pennsylvania State University’s political science department and a columnist for the Daily Collegian, criticized Penn State’s Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon by joining a group, which used profanity and critiqued the event.

Good commented that the annual event, which raises money for cancer research, and its supporters were being shallow and self-interested, only participating because it was an obligation as a member of a fraternity or sorority.

Zaynab Hameeduddin, sophomore in LAS at the University, is not a fan of Facebook.

She recently de-activated her profile because it took too much of her time and she was tired of dealing with it.

Hameeduddin also said people take it too seriously.

“Where do you draw the lines between what’s personal and what’s private?” she said.

A response to Good’s comments came in the form of another Facebook site, “Fire Zach Good from the Daily Collegian.” After the new Facebook group emerged, some of its members sent a letter to the editor-in-chief Erin James, who then fired Good.

According to insidehighered.com, she said he had violated the student newspaper’s code of ethics.

“We have the freedom of speech, but it depends on what his contract says,” said Pritha Majumder, sophomore in Business, about the decision to fire Good.

According to insidehighered.com, Good said there is “no specific section of the Collegian Code of Ethics that makes a reference to content on Facebook or other social Web sites.”

In a column on his personal site, called “Happy Trails, Daily Collegian,” Good wrote, “It’s difficult to draw the line between what is appropriate and inappropriate representation of the Collegian on a public forum.”

Majumder, who has a Facebook profile, said that at the University’s College of Business students are told to delete incriminating pictures and offensive material to make their Facebook profiles more decent.

But students are informed that the safest thing is to get rid of it.

Much like learning how to approach recruiters at career fairs, students learn how to keep their Facebook profiles from getting them negative attention.

“It is a representation of yourself, whatever you’re putting up,” Majumder said.