This project (besides my own of course) is my favorite of them all. For selfish reasons of course. I'm a junior here at CBU, and the atmosphere within the community now may seem to be sub-par freshmen, but it was much worse when I first arrived. Specifically, as a black student on this campus it was hard for me, as well as other students I've talked to over the years, to feel included and to socialize with the diverse population of this campus. To no one's fault, people naturally group up with others that they are used to and make them comfortable. But when you're going from being a majority all throughout grade school to a minority in college it can be extremely challenging learning how to navigate the new social dynamics. That is why I enjoy this app and board idea so much. CBU needs to find a way to have the students of all backgrounds interact with each other more often than at the TKE parties and in the caf. There is a lot of promotion about the community before you get here, but it isn't the case for a large portion of the students and this app could be the solution to that issue.
If students are able to connect to each other on a quick basis, within the safety of the app and comfort of knowing that they are not alone in their CBU experiences the retention rate fo the freshman to sophomore year would be higher. Yikyak was a start, but the anonymity factor it was bound to go in the terrible direction that it did. And it wasn't CBU centric. This has the power to unite a campus which has deep and strong divides and alienation within the student body.
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