The new Concordia Facebook phenomenon, Cobber Mingle, allows students to make anonymous posts about their romantic — and apparently even sexual — interests, hopes, dreams, and fantasies. From adorable little posts about some nameless cutie seen around campus to revealing sexual stories and downright forward propositions, it is definitely the fad of the week.
This is not the first time that Concordia has gotten excited about a new school Facebook page. Cobber Memes was dominant two years ago, Confessions of a Cobber started this past spring, and Conco-Gossip was a Twitter feed that saw a fair bit of action starting last fall. Most of them are shooting stars; they have their bright and magnificent few moments of glory and then fade into obscurity. We can only hope the same follows for Cobber Mingle.
The thing with Cobber Mingle is that it holds the potential to be kind of adorable with shades of creepy, but has become dominantly disgusting. Not only have their been anonymous propositions to both give and receive oral sex, but there have been students mentioned by name with intentions of not the most purity.
Now, we at The Concordian are not necessarily in favor of complete suppression of sexual desire, but we are also not in favor of targeting individual students, even if it is meant as a compliment. If it has yet to happen, it will not be long before people start to feel unsafe on their own college campus, especially when we all received a security report saying sexual assaults may have occurred in Concordia parking lots.
Furthermore, there is an issue of class. We should not need Ron Burgundy telling us to “stay classy, Concordia,” yet people — whether Concordia students or external trolls — are putting things up on this page that are, in all honesty, pretty trashy. The obvious lack of accountability begs the question of where it will end, and how far it has to go before the jokes get too serious and something bad happens.
Imagine if a prospective student stumbled upon Cobber Mingle and saw a bunch of inappropriate sexual advances being anonymously made toward singled out students. It would be hard to imagine it would reflect well on this school. Anyone who reads The Concordian can tell you enrollment numbers give reason for concern. Creating a positive environment for prospies is a job for all of us, not just admissions, and this probably won’t do much to help.
It may be nice to be modestly flattered and have a place to confess crushes, but no one deserves to be creeped out. Moderators: either filter the posts or take the page down.
This editorial was written by The Concordian Editorial Staff.
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