Esraa Ahmad, a graduate student at the University of New Hampshire, left an informational town hall earlier this summer wholly unsatisfied.
The virtual meeting, organized by the university to answer questions and quell fears about the reopening plan, felt more like a lecture than a town hall, she said. It seemed like the administrators were only picking the easy questions that would paint them in a favorable light and the chat function on Zoom was disabled, leaving her unsure if other students shared her concerns about the semester.
“It was just admin complimenting each other about how great the plan was,” she said. “You just start to think ‘Am I crazy?’”
Ahmad started thinking maybe her concerns were an overreaction. Then, a friend told her to follow an Instagram page called “Covidatunh.”
The Instagram page, made up of hundreds of black tiles with small white print, put into text many of her concerns. Run by an unnamed graduate student, the page allows students to submit their gripes about the UNH reopening plan anonymously.
Since the semester started, Ahmad has gotten most of her information about the university’s plan for the pandemic through the Covidatunh page, rather than from the university itself.
“Honestly, the university has screwed us over so many times,” Ahmad commented on one of the photos. “I have no reason to believe any of the information coming from them.”
During a time when many felt as though the university-sponsored town halls were contrived and unhelpful, the Instagram page offered students something new – an almost completely unfiltered forum to air concerns and grievances about the university’s handling of COVID-19.
The page administrator posts almost all of the submissions – 86.5% to be exact – only filtering out profanity, racist content, and nonsensical submissions.
Some flocked to the page to ask practical questions like how to get more test kits, or how to access test results. Others used the page to ask for help navigating the complicated social dynamics the pandemic created in cramped dorm rooms.
“Would it be too much for me to ask my roommate to wear her mask in our room and keep it on while sleeping?” one student asked.
Yes, it is too much, was the consensus in the comment section.
Most commonly, students submitted their frustrations and disappointments about attending college during a global pandemic.
One freshman commuting to campus said it felt nearly impossible to make friends because of COVID-19. Several students were angry at their peers, who they watched flout social distancing guidelines.
“With all this Labor Day partying, how long we thinking it’s gonna take for us to get sent home?” a student asked.
A few students complained about delayed test results and dropped calls on the university’s coronavirus hotline. Eventually, even staff and parents chimed in about their concerns on the page.
The page became so active that the admin informed her followers she would be taking one-day hiatus from reading submissions – she usually spends a couple of hours a day reading through submissions and posting.
The page is more than an echo chamber for students’ anxieties.
The account’s 2,700 followers include several official accounts associated with the university, like the account for UNH fraternities and sororities, the UNH health and wellness page, and the student body president account.
The UNH police chief, though he doesn’t follow the page, frequently answers questions in the comments.
When one student posted, panicked because they hadn’t received their test results, the student body president account responded almost immediately to say they had emailed the Dean to address the issue.
“A lot of people are scared,” Ahmad said. “It’s good for them to feel like they’re not alone. It’s very important for us to have this outlet.”