Students have now formulated their demands to administrators in the form of banning forms of social media.
Some at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Va. have been concerned enough by reportedly racist posts on Yik-Yak, that the Student Senate has been meeting with Crista Cabe, the vice president of public relations, as News Leader reported on Thursday.
The app allows users to post anonymously, which makes it hard to backtrack the posts. Many also disappear after a few days, which could be a solution to the offense as well. If readers don’t like a post, they at least won’t have to be subject to viewing it for much longer.
Getting rid of the app wouldn’t merely do away with a fun social media site for Mary Baldwin students. It might not be very fruitful. If students cannot access it from campus wireless internet, they can, and likely will, still do so using their cell phone data.
And, as Cabe points out, and News Leader comments further on:
That seems like quite the bit of work to ban an app because of racist posts which are likely to disappear shortly on their own.
When there have been threats made over Yik-Yak, police have gotten involved to arrest the suspects, such as with the University of Missouri. The creators of the social media app also sent out a message denouncing such threats.
The terms of Yik-Yak also do not allow for the “use [of] racially or ethnically offensive language” and their rules also warn that flagged posts could lead to suspended accounts.
The college has not moved forward with banning the app, though the Senate voted to revisit the request to find a solution which will not interfere with the campus’ network.
