I heard disturbing news the other night. A hometown friend’s son was one of 10 fraternity members arrested in New Orleans in May on charges related to a hazing incident at Tulane University. I Googled his name and was shocked to read the details: boiling water, pledge initiation, second- and third-degree burns.

The Smoking Gun had an explicit article about the alleged April 25th “Hell Night” activities at the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house, and links to the arrest warrants and police mug shots of the frat members charged in the incident. The Google search also revealed several news

articles about the incident published in traditional news outlets in New Orleans and across the country in the boys’ hometown newspapers. And, since this is the era of Web 2.0, there were several blog posts devoted to the subject, including this “off topic” posting on PocketFives, a website devoted to poker. And, yes, there were comments. LOTS of comments. On the PocketFives site and on other sites, the hazing incident had definitely sparked a conversation. Or maybe it would be more accurate to refer to it as a shouting match, with some posters calling the fraternity members names that were nearly as awful as the incident that triggered the debate.

It struck me that regrettable behavior, whether associated with a college fraternity initiation or at any time in our personal or professional life, lives on long after resolution, in part, thanks to the Internet. And, perhaps unwittingly, the fraternity member’s friends may be contributors to the endless trail and the consequences. A Facebook page they posted, Free J—– B—–, has no privacy restrictions. There, for anyone to see, is his unflattering police mug shot along with news and wall postings that may be funny to his college pals, but probably wouldn’t be amusing to a potential future employer.

And none of us should think that current and future employers aren’t looking at — and judging — our online presence. In its June 2007 issue, the Harvard Business Review published an interactive case study, We Googled You. The article poses a dilemma for an employer who thinks he’s found a dream candidate for a job until an online revelation proves that nothing from our past — even details found on page nine of a Google search — is ever erased.