 "Photo: Juicycampus.com")
"LMU... does it really have sports? I've seen a couple of black guys running down the court, does that count?" This is just one example of a post on JuicyCampus.com, all of which are anonymous.
Two days after this comment was posted on the new gossip Web site, Juicy Campus, it received 236 views. Equally popular posts include ones gossiping about specific people's personal lives and ones criticizing LMU faculty and staff. The Loyola Marymount University Administration is now working to counteract the effects this site has had on campus.
Juicy Campus' mission, according to its Web site, is to "enable online, anonymous, free speech on college campuses." Seven college campuses, including LMU, are currently supported by Juicy Campus. The Web site was officially launched on Oct. 24, 2007.
The site is in the Beta stage, meaning it's new and experimental, explained Matt Ivester, the creator of Juicy Campus. "We're improving the site's technology and expanding to more and more campuses," he said.
Ivester's creation has grown extremely popular on some campuses but has remained relatively unnoticed on others. As of press time, the LMU section has 23 pages of posts, while the UCLA section only has four (each page has 15 posts on it, and each post can have as many replies as possible). This is in light of the fact that LMU has a student population near 5,000 while UCLA has around 40,000 students. The most viewed post on the LMU page had 2,390 views as of Dec. 2, 2007.
The Web site is designed to allow students to write about any topic, institution or person, all anonymously. The site guarantees "there is no way for someone using the site to find out who you are. And we at Juicy Campus are not keeping track of who you are or what you post. In fact, we prefer not to know who you are. We like to think that famous people like Justin Timberlake and Beyonce are using our site. We love them…"
The numbers speak for themselves: many students at LMU have participated in the Juicy Campus forum. "It's a guilty pleasure," said Amanda Neufeld, a sophomore engineering major. "I don't write on it, but it's funny to read the posts. That is, until they're about people you know and then you realize that these are real people being talked about. I am disgusted by the racist and hateful speech displayed on that site."
Regarding the racist posts on Juicy Campus, such as the one mentioned above, Ivester declined to comment.
While many continue to visit the site, some students have taken the initiative to speak out against Juicy Campus.
"Yes, I have been approached by students," said Dr. Linda McMurdock, Dean of Students. "Generally, the concerns are about offensive content, potential conflict from that content and the fact that it's anonymous," she said.
McMurdock explained that the university is currently looking for ways to deal with this problem. "As a result of student concerns, our campus is taking it to the Bias Incident Response Team (BIRT), which is going to investigate Juicy Campus," she said. BIRT is a LMU affiliated organization.
"BIRT is going to look at options available to the University and make recommendations to the Cabinet," said McMurdock.
She also noted that other campuses are fighting the same battle. "Other colleges are struggling with this issue too," she said. According to McMurdock, others are choosing to ignore Juicy Campus altogether.
"I think this site is offensive and I don't endorse that type of site at all," McMurdock commented. "[People] put the vilest material on there anonymously. When you go to a site like that, what you're doing essentially is reinforcing it."
BIRT is expected to produce results from their investigation sometime in the near future. The University will deal with issues surrounding Juicy Campus at that time. Until then, McMurdock stresses the importance of students to steer clear from Juicy Campus.
"For students, I recommend and encourage you not to go there," she said. "Don't participate and don't view it. If you do, you help it exist."
