Who's the biggest slut on campus? The "Jewciest" Jew? Who's still in the closet? Once confined to bathrooms and late-night heart-to-hearts over a pint of ice cream, college gossip has hit online forums nationwide-and students are reading.
Secrets are revealed on JuicyCampus.com, where some of the brightest students in the nation participate in a name-calling free-for-all. When every topic and response allows for anonymity, anything can be written. "The idea started as me thinking back to my college days and saying, 'Here are some of my favorite, funniest, most outrageous stories,'" says founder and Duke alumnus Matt Ivester. "There is so much going on in college. Why not provide a place online for people to share their stories?"
But it's not all fun and games. Ivester did not anticipate the flood of mean-spirited posts, which range from listing the most racist students on campus, to singling out the best blowjobs. The site's potential to damage reputations has attracted media attention, including features in The New York Times and last week's issue of Us Weekly. The increased publicity and coverage has only boosted JuicyCampus' popularity.
So far, the site does not have a Northwestern satellite; some fear its arrival. "If the site came to Northwestern, it would be dramatic and have huge potential to ruin reps, but at the same time, I would definitely go on," says Medill freshman Emily Wray. "I would probably read it religiously." Wray knows a student at the University of California at Santa Barbara who was featured on the site for her prowess in the oral sex department.
Already, the controversial Web site is in the midst of expansion and has created pages for 60 colleges since launching in October 2007. Ivester hopes to eventually hit every U.S. campus, and NU students can expect to see some Wildcat dirty laundry aired online in the near future, he says. There is no system for removing schools directly from JuicyCampus, according to Ivester. "Is it a gossip Web site? Yes. Do I think that it creates more gossip? Not at all," he says. "I think it makes it more available, perhaps."
Students at Colgate University and Loyola Marymount University have been arrested for threatening school violence on the forum. Multiple campuses, including Pepperdine and Cornell, have considered banning students from the site. New Jersey and Connecticut attorney generals recently subpoenaed JuicyCampus for potentially violating the Consumer Fraud Act. And NU sororities have received letters from their national offices prohibiting members from participating, if and when the site does arrive on campus. The site's terms and conditions do not allow users to post defamatory or libelous information, yet JuicyCampus has no system for removing such banned posts. In a blog post titled "Hate isn't Juicy," Ivester encourages JuicyCampus posters to keep comments clean. "Please consider whether your post is entertaining or just mean, and whether using a person's full name really adds value … Remember that words can hurt, and the people you are talking about are real," writes Ivester. "I think that the users should be responsible with the things that they are saying," he says. "I just tell them that if they are offended by it, feel free not to listen."
But even without JuicyCampus here, there are already several sites chronicling Deuce debauchery and drama. The Rumor Royalty site, modeled on the popular book series and television show Gossip Girl, follows the daily scandals and adventures of the blogger's closest friends (identified by nicknames), whose lives he has been narrating since November. "They are people who are already larger than life and it was very easy to turn them into fictionalized characters," says the anonymous writer. While his posts are about real people, he claims some events are embellished. "I'm just out to make a funny joke about Northwestern's social life," he says. "I receive some very racy [gossip] that could really harm people's reputations. I won't publish it. I'm not looking to create enemies."
Northwestern OTR, a gossip-oriented site that, like JuicyCampus, is an offshoot of a national organization, covers a wider social scene. The site was created last summer and its writers are paid to post. "I think it was just supposed to be an outlet for 'reporting' what wasn't being covered in the newspaper or North by Northwestern. Stuff that happens in the party scene, fashion and sororities," says senior Sarah Hayden, who currently writes for the site.
On these sites, the student body has already shown a penchant for scandal. "You can't really control what people are going to write in the comments," Hayden says. "Completely untrue things can get spread campus-wide. It has the potential to be really damaging." And that's why the gossipmonger behind Rumor Royalty thinks NU will bode well for Ivester.
"I think JuicyCampus will catch on here," he says. "This is a campus that likes to talk … but at what cost does it come?"
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