The Office of President Lynn Perry Wooten emailed the undergraduate student body about anonymous social media accounts that post about the Simmons community this morning, May 6. This email, written by Wooten, Vice President of Student Engagement, Rae-Anne Butera, and Vice President of Student Success and Diversity, Nakeisha Cody, comes in response to “reprehensible statements that seem to have no purpose other than to hurt or to harm.”
The email explains that interacting with or running anonymous accounts violates the university’s Code of Conduct and those who do “could face sanctions, including a written warning, probation, suspension, or even expulsion.”
“We remain committed to fostering civil discourse,” Wooten, Butera, and Cody write, “and encourage members of our community to reach out with any information or concerns.”
The Instagram account @simmonssubmissions posted shortly after the email that they will be shutting down their account. “You win President Wooten, I’ll shut the account down,” they wrote in the caption, “This will be the final post.” The owner of the account did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
“The comment that was made about me surrounded my appearance,” explained Mariella Johnson, a sophomore whose name has been posted on the account. “It really is just cyberbullying and a lot of hate and harm.”
“I don’t follow the account. I think it’s absolutely disgusting,” Bart Brown, Student Government Association Vice President, told the Voice. She was told about her name being posted by her previous boss who no longer works for the university. “To see that someone thought it was appropriate to put my name in that context was really disheartening for me,” Brown shared, “I haven’t really stated whether or not I’m pro or against [Israel] as a means of my own safety.”
Valerie O’Donovan, a sophomore nursing major, felt that exposing names in the submissions was unnecessary. “If it’s silly, goofy confessions,” She explained, “I’m okay [with that].”
Other students whose names were posted on the account declined or did not respond to requests for comment by the publication deadline.
