CNN White House correspondent and UA alumna, Kaitlan Collins, apologized for several controversial tweets posted during her time as a college student on Oct. 8.

According to the Huffington Post, the Log Cabin Republicans, a conservative LGBTQ+ group, resurfaced old tweets from 2011, in which Collins used a homophobic slur and questioned whether she wanted to room with a lesbian.

Collins wrote an apology on Twitter that said “When I was in college, I used ignorant language in a few tweets to my friends. It was immature but it doesn’t represent the way I feel at all. I regret it and apologize.”

Laura Lemon, assistant advertising and public relations professor, said students should be mindful of how they maintain their personal brand and that they should keep their social media networks professional, as they serve as powerful platforms.

“As a public relations professor, I see the world through a PR lens,” Lemon said. “I also encourage students to have a professional email as well as other domains. There are some real positives to being able to utilize social media when students are thinking about branding themselves and putting themselves out there, however, their brands run across several platforms, so they need to clean up their social networks prior to being on the job market.”

Chandra Clark, assistant journalism and creative media professor, said she believes Collins was just a college student who didn’t realize things posted to social media could come back to haunt her professionally.

“A lot of my friends that are news directors tell me to tell me students that they should always be cognizant of everything that they post,” Clark said. “It seems very elementary, but it is a good reminder. I don’t think it ever hurts to stress that because people often get caught up in the moment.”

Clark has an 18-year-old daughter and said they have talks about being careful on the internet quite frequently as she is getting ready for college.

“It’s kind of the rule of thumb: If it’s not something you’d want on the front page of the newspaper, then you shouldn’t put it on social media,” Lemon said. “If you think it’s private, it’s not.”