Four years ago, the campus was buzzing about a new blog called UMBC Underground. Styling itself as an alternative to The Retriever Weekly, UU featured posts about campus news, problems, events and opportunities. Many posts took the form of questions, like how students felt about the choice of a Quadmania headliner or the imposition of a new student fee.
Part of the excitement about UMBC Underground was that its authors kept their identities a secret. That, and the fact that people posting comments could choose to remain anonymous, made the enterprise feel a little edgy and rebellious. Many of the comments (especially the anonymous ones) were predictably nasty, whiny, self-absorbed and cowardly. I'm sure a lot of UU's abundant traffic came from people drawn to the display of verbal acrimony and conflict. But UU's anonymous founders' posts were nearly always positive, tolerant and supportive of campus life. The founder known as 'Treeveins' set a philosophical tone with ruminations on campus involvement and the inner experience of being a student. There were times when I disagreed strongly with UU's posts or editorial judgments, but I always appreciated the founders' good intentions (about which I had some insight, having discussed them with Treeveins from time to time), cooperative spirit, and willingness to experiment and take risks to help students make UMBC their own. I started Co-Create UMBC in the same semester UU launched, and took plenty of inspiration from UU's style and content.
UU's stream of posts had diminished to a trickle over the past couple of years, but only over the weekend did I discover that the web domain is no longer active. UU appears to have been done in by a combination of the founders graduating and the availability of the MyUMBC discussion forums, where the spectacle of inflammatory posts provoking other users into ill-considered contests of verbal cruelty is all the more mesmerizing for the fact that users cannot hide behind the shield of anonymity.
I'm glad UU had its run, and appreciate the founders' aspirations and contributions. And I wonder whether the niche UU's founders tried to occupy--provoking community exploration, and reflection about campus life and students' experiences--is still open to thoughtful students. MyUMBC provides a wonderful venue, a virtual gathering space. Some of the posts there, and also on Facebook and Twitter, provide invitations of exactly the sort UU had in mind. But I suspect there is even more students could do to draw each other into a reflective space where they can help each other take ownership of our campus community.
