Staff Editorial: Students need to take responsibility for offensive CollegeACB.com content

There's a new online distraction in town, and it has a lot of St. Joe's students talking.

CollegeACB.com, a Web forum that allows anonymous comments from college students, was created last year by two Wesleyan University grads, but it wasn't until recently that the site made waves at Saint Joseph's University. Forum topics include "Top Tits," "Hottest Guy in each frat," "Sluts of the freshman class," and a host of full names of St. Joe's students.

The comments found on St. Joe's CollegeACB.com page are, for the most part, rude, derogatory, insensitive, and hurtful. They are often sexist, racist, homophobic, and violent in their nature. While we believe that students do have the right to express themselves freely, anonymous or not, it has become clear that the comments on CollegeACB.com have gotten out of hand.

If a stranger were to stumble upon the topics and commentary provided by members of our university community on this site, they would miss what's best about Saint Joseph's University. There's nothing about our service programs, academics, philanthropy, spirit, or Catholic/Jesuit identity. There's nothing about our individuality, diversity, intelligence, passions, and hard work. Instead, CollegeACB.com reveals a campus community tearing at each other with ignorant and immature remarks. It's high school all over again.

The comments and words posted anonymously on CollegeACB.com are also particularly unsafe given the recent trends in cyber bullying. A number of students across the U.S. have attempted or committed suicide after online comments drove them to a point of despair. Students using the site—and other social networking sites—need to fully understand the potential consequences of their actions. Calling St. Joe's students out by name and posting thread after thread of insults isn't harmless fun; it's dangerous.

We support the administration's decision to avoid censoring social networking sites like CollegeACB.com, and believe that it is up to the student body to change the content of these conversations toward a more positive direction.

We hope that Saint Joseph's students will recognize the damage they have caused for many within our campus community and that they will reconsider their actions in the future. There is enough hate in the real world for students to deal with on a day to day basis; let's not add more of it to students' cyber world as well.