Though Facebook will soon be opening its doors to the general public, students may not be aware that those influencing their educational futures have had access all along.

Some Penn State student affairs and university relations administrators have profiles on Facebook.com, a student-based online social network.

"We spend a lot of time answering questions about Facebook, Myspace and related sites," Tysen Kendig, university spokesman, said. "So, I created a profile for myself to better understand how it works."

Kyle Burns (freshman-business) said he didn't know administrators had Facebook profiles.

"One of my friends at a different college told me that he attended a seminar, and they told him that colleges check Facebook to make sure you're not drinking," he said.

Kendig said he barely uses the site.

"I think I've visited the site once since creating the profile, and that was when my cousin found my name and 'pinged' me to join his friends list," he said. "I guess I'm already too old to fully grasp the cultural phenomenon of these sites among high school and college-aged students."

Unlike Kendig, Ken Miller, director of student affairs for Penn State Erie, has an active profile, boasting 122 friends.

"At Behrend we pride ourselves on developing good relationships with our students," he said. "Students who don't know me might wonder why I have one."

Miller said he has seen some inappropriate material on Facebook but nothing too serious.

"I'm very aware of student behavior," he said. "I haven't seen anything too surprising. It's college. You can't evaluate students based on a Facebook. Basically, we don't have time to plow through your profile looking for violations."

Working with the Student Government Association, Miller also used his profile to encourage student involvement.

"We took out Facebook ads encouraging sophomores changing campuses to consider Behrend as an option," he said. "Also, our admissions director sometimes gets questions through Facebook."

After learning of the site through his daughters, Stan Latta, associate vice president for student affairs, said he became interested in its uses.

"I find the whole process very interesting," he said. "To me, it's like a personal diary that has been opened to the whole world via the Internet. It's probably a generational difference, but I'm not a big fan of putting so much personal information out in the open for the whole world to see."

Bill Mahon, university spokesman, said he saw it more as an opportunity to explore new technology.

"About a year ago, I had read that it would become popular," he said. "I visit a lot of technology sites so I thought I'd play around and see how it works."