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These memes are part of a group of puns about Carnegie Museum University president Subra Suresh's name.
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Campus meme groups show the lighter side of college life

Filipp Shelobolin and Elena Dang

Campus meme groups show the lighter side of college life

When Harvard University officials recently rescinded the acceptances of 10 students who shared offensive topics on a private memes Facebook group, many in the public may have wondered — what’s a college meme group?

They’re the newest trend in Facebook humor that began appearing on college campuses during the 2016-17 school year. They serve as forums for students to share jokes and capture aspects of the school’s culture — parodies about administrators, certain majors and a school’s stress atmosphere.

Locally, the largest and most active is “Carnegie Mellon Memes for Spicy Teens,” founded by rising junior Emily Newman.

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“Memes have this ideology of being silly,” said Russell Hawkins, a rising senior at Carnegie Mellon University who frequently posts to the group. “It actually tells a lot about how you think.”

Just minutes after CMU President Subra Suresh sent an email on June 1 announcing his pending resignation, Ms. Newman, posted a meme that now boasts more than 700 Facebook likes and reactions. It reads in part “RIP $ubra ... $uresh’s presidential term / November 2013 - June 2017 / Sad reacts only / Press F to pay respects :’(.” More than 150 students commented “F.”

Because many students check Facebook more frequently than they do email, this was how they learned he was stepping down.

“Wait what is this straight memeing or real?” Anthony Paone wrote shortly after the meme was posted.

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Ms. Newman said that many students were skeptical of the news of Mr. Suresh’s resignation, especially given how sudden and unexpected it was. He is leaving June 30 after serving just four years. “The memes added another layer of disbelief,” she said.

As of Monday, the CMU group had 4,662 members — a sizeable percentage of Carnegie Mellon’s total undergraduate class of 6,454. Other college meme groups boast even larger followings: University of California Berkeley “UC Berkeley Memes for Edgy Teens” was the trailblazer, founded in May 2016, and has a whopping 95,835 members — topping all competitors.

Meme presence at the University of Pittsburgh and other local colleges is much smaller, or doesn’t exist.

The group description for CMU’s meme page specifies “ALL content must be CMU/​Pitt/​Pittsburgh related / if you must post generic memes, at least slap a scotty [CMU’s mascot] on it.”

“I think it gives students an outlet to just get away from their studies for a moment,” said Paris Mielke, an incoming CMU freshman. “There are so many people in one place sharing the same experience.”

Now, memes about Mr. Suresh’s resignation join the memes mocking the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the honorary degree that CMU awarded Bill Cosby in 2007, among other topics. (While Pitt and numerous other colleges rescinded honorary degrees given to Mr. Cosby in the wake of allegations of sexual assault and harassment against him, CMU has not).

“If you can make a clever joke about how we’re all dying financially, then that’s a good meme,” Mr. Hawkins said, referring to the high cost of tuition at private universities such as CMU.

CMU’s meme group has not faced the troubles that Harvard experienced, where posters shared offensive memes on topics relating to race, the Holocaust, and sexual assault. CMU’s group is largely monitored by students.

“For us very rarely someone will post something ... past the point of funny into actually offending someone,” Ms. Newman said. When this has happened she immediately deleted the meme and admonished the poster, and in some cases banned them.

“There’s a couple of professors in the group,” said Ms. Newman, although she said she hasn’t seen them post anything or comment on the memes.

Beyond the humor, meme groups also have attracted the attention of prospective and incoming students looking to gain an understanding of a college’s culture that goes deeper than the glossy images on admissions office brochures.

Ms. Mielke, the incoming freshman whose posts in the group have already garnered upward of 700 likes, said that while she did not consider different school’s meme groups in her college decision, she has been turning to the group to learn about campus life. “I definitely appreciate that it’s there,” she said.

“It kind of embodies the character of the college.”

Overall, Ms. Newman expressed pride over what she had created. “Hopefully it makes some people laugh, because CMU is a pretty stressful place.”

Catherine Cray: ccray@post-gazette.com

First Published: June 14, 2017, 4:00 a.m.

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These memes are part of a group of puns about Carnegie Museum University president Subra Suresh's name.  (Filipp Shelobolin and Elena Dang)
Filipp Shelobolin and Elena Dang
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