one example of the conversations happening over Yik Yak on Monday at Colgate
Yik Yak is an illegitimate source for anything related to this campus, yes, I know that. However, over the last semester Colgate’s infamous Yik Yak app has started quite a few controversies here in the real world. If you are unaware, our nation is currently in a state of distress. The recent Michael Brown and Eric Garner non-indictment verdicts have caused outrage across the country and the world. Colgate’s campus is a microcosm of America. An effort to protest repeated acts of racial injustice began last week on campus. Students staged a “die-in” at the Coop, laying down on the floor holding signs for justice. They also wrote messages such as #blacklivesmatter along the windows and doors of Academic buildings and across an upside-down American flag. The flag writing sparked a counter uproar from students on Yik Yak. Students have used the annoymous app as a method to spread racist hate speech and harmful death threats to those who have participated in acts of protest. It is clear that Colgate students stand on different sides of this national issue as well as what is deemed “appropriate” during acts of protest.
One student has decided to take his or her opposition to a new low, creating a fake email account under the alias Andrew Winklevoss (a failed and irrelevant allusion to Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the twin brothers from the 2004 Facebook intellectual property lawsuit and 2010 film The Social Network). The email and several violent death threats on Yik Yak are assumed to have occured via the Colgate wireless wifi. In a response to the threats, the Colgate administration advised 21 students to leave campus for their own safety. Word has not spread on whether or not the administration will follow up with the students who have made these terrible threats. This act of dismissal sends an unsatisfactory message to the Colgate community. The victims of hate crimes are being removed from campus, not the perpetrators. In response to this act, students have collected infront of Dean Hicks office in McGreggory Hall, raising awareness for the 21 displaced students today. President Jefferey Herbst sent out an email last week, noting “violent statements that have been articulated in person and posted on social media are always unacceptable and are against the law and such actions will be vigoursly investigated and adjudicated through Colgate’s conduct process and outside law enforcement.” Students are now awaiting a follow-up.