Many would describe Catawba College as a suitcase school, meaning most of the students that go here usually go home on the weekends. Being a part of this school, I don’t blame them, as the nightlife or weekend life in the area is basically dead and there is almost nothing to ever do. Until there was a glimmer of hope called “Catawba Moves.” “Catawba Moves” was an Instagram page that started following a bunch of Catawba students. I found out about it because they started following my sister. When she got the notification, she was almost shocked, yet also doubtful that something like it would work.

Then the weekend finally came, and we kept refreshing the feed to see if this account was actually going to post anything. It finally did. It was just a plain address posted onto their story with emojis. When 10 o’clock rolled around, we were ready to go. It was about a 10 minute drive and as soon as we got there I saw numerous people I knew, but had never seen them all in the same place before. It was a big change, the night went on, and we got back to our dorm.

For a while, we didn’t hear much from the Instagram page until someone on my track team told me the school’s Dean of Students, Jared Tice, had found the account. This was a surprise to me, because at first I didn’t really see anything wrong with the account. Subsequently, the account got shut down after Tice threatened to suspend everyone following it. I wanted to talk to Tice to see why he wanted to get rid of the account.

The questions I asked him were: “What was the reason for the account being taken down?” and “How do you feel about parties on campus?” He replied that the school never took the Instagram account down, rather, they had reprimanded it for using Catawba in their username. He added that: “Any formal and or informal events on campus, including parties, are perfectly acceptable as long as they comply with Catawba policies and procedures, and city and state code. Student clubs and organizations should always consult with the office of campus life on organizing events and parties to stay within the policies. Individual students or students wishing to have informal gatherings should always consult the Student Resource Guide first and direct any questions to the office of student affairs.”

In my opinion, I feel like things like this shouldn’t get shut down. I remember hearing if you were following this page you were going to get suspended. However, it seems like the only reason it got taken down was because it had Catawba in the username, with no actual connection with the school. Although I understand this rationale, it was also a way for people in this school to connect in a way we didn’t get to previously. The people who go here know Catawba isn’t known for being fun, still, this felt like a start to something that ended much too quickly.