Gone batty Thursday, September 2, 2021
Bat spotted in the North Commons Annika Warren Staff Reporter
Bats are not usually one of the first things students expect to see in the dorm. After the bat tick infestation at Patchin Hall in 2019, the Oklahoma State is no stranger to these creatures being in students’ living spaces. Over two weeks ago in the North Commons, there was a bat sighted in the downstairs lobby. Alex Kubicek, a freshman biology major, is a resident of the North Commons. “I was walking into the dorm, and there was a guy that told me I wasn’t allowed to go into the elevator because they didn’t want a bat to fly in,” Kubicek said. Some students like Erika Mitchell, a freshman business marketing major and resident in
Yik Yak is back See Batty on 2
File Photo
Last week a bat was sighted flying through North Commons.
Ellen Slater Lifestyle Editor Yik Yak, the popular app that lets users anonymously post on a thread, where everyone with the app in a 5-mile radius can see, has come off of a four year hiatus and the Stillwater college community is enduring it. The app became very popular in 2013, but was taken off the app store and not released again till this month. The app is world-wide, but focuses in on niche communities. So, if a user is in Stillwater they can see what everyone else on campus is saying-- all of campus, Greek Row, off-campus housing, and buildings- as long as it is within the set five mile radius. It is a place where people share jokes that only the niche community of students currently at OSU would understand- for instance, people are making jokes about the multi-factor authentication login system that the university installed or OSU’s daily covid responses. The content on the app is typically comedic, but it is evident that there is a lot of negativity on the app, going against the reason for the creation of the application. There are hundreds of negative direct mentions of certain groups, such as slander to specific Greek organizations, as well as call-outs of certain students-some even being by name. Because it is all anonymous, users do not face the pressure of being revealed, therefore saying exactly what they want. “We’re committed to making Yik Yak a fun place free of bullying, threats, and all sorts of negativity,” says a statement on Yik Yak’s website. These standards do not seem to be true for Yik Yak- specifically on college campuses and in the Stillwater community. Do you think that the return of Yik Yak is bad for OSU’s community, or just another harmless app? Yik Yak, the popular app that lets people within the community post anonymously, has made a comeback.
Ellen Slater
entertainment.ed@ocolly.com