In case you missed it, a digital debacle ensued on MU’s Facebook page after unwise comments from many, most notably Missouri State Representative Kathie Conway.

The original posting was promoting MU Pride Month’s keynote speech, a lecture by scholar and speaker E. Patrick Johnson. Johnson’s lecture covered issues regarding black and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities, particularly from his experience with those in the South.

Among the immature and discriminating comments, Conway, on her personal Facebook account, questioned, “Really?? This is educational? Just what is the percentage of the population that this could possibly apply? .0001%?”

Her comment, along with others, caused a domino effect, spawning heated posts between those in favor of those speaker and critical of Conway, and those on the other side. The postings became so out of control that MU, in accordance with their posting policies, deleted the entire post.

This move could have been eerily hasty and non-transparent had MU not issued a later blog about the matter, explaining their posting policies and clarifying why they took the post down. We applaud MU for handling this tense situation maturely and transparently, and hope they continue the trend in future situations.

Rep. Conway, in an interview with The Maneater, said the situation made her realize when “You are a public figure, you no longer have a personal opinion.” How unfortunate for her, as it seems she finds a distinction between her persona as a representative and her actual persona, the ignorant colors of whom we all saw on Facebook.

What Rep. Conway could have taken from this situation is the realization that her responsibilities to her constituency, her professionalism and her quality of conduct do not fade away when she’s chilling on Facebook. Having opinions different than others as a public figure is acceptable, but not if your means of expressing them is immature, uninformed and unprofessional.